Silver lining
by FollowThatConvoy
Summary: Sequel to Blue Jeans. Retribution storyline(SPOILERS ALERT), but transformed to please Alice/Claire shippers and these FEELS. Watch out: FEMMELASH, violence and language. Other pairings will show up along the chapters.
1. Mrs Abernathy

**N/A: Hello, boys and girls, I'm back! Here's the first chapter – I hope you like it :D**

**Avienda****, I know I'm late, but… Happy Birthday! Here, have a chapter as a gift ;)**

**Disclaimers: You know the drill. I don't own anything from Resident Evil.**

**1. Mrs. Abernathy**

Little by little, she felt her brain regaining consciousness of her body. Her muscles felt a little sore, like they didn't catch a break in years. The shutters floated about with the soft breeze, allowing the clarity inside the bedroom. As the furtive sun beams warmed her skin, her blue eyes opened very slowly, growing used to the blinding light.

Claire frowned and rubbed her eyes as she sat up straight on the bed. _Bed_. She had the feeling she wasn't supposed to be on a bed. Her back ached too much for a bed that was so damn comfortable. And the pillows – _God_, the pillows…

She looked around with the odd sensation that she was somewhere she shouldn't be. Her body might be sore, but her nerves were alert. Slowly, pictures of what seemed to be just a nightmare came back to her – pain, guns, helicopters and a lot of yelling. Maybe she should cut some slack with those war movies. But they _did_ felt real…

She looked down and registered she was wearing nothing. Claire's immediate reaction was to grab the bed sheet and wrap it around her body. She felt movement and the bed springs creaked softly. She jerked almost imperceptibly with the new weight added to the mattress. Claire turned around and, out of pure instinct, she swung her arm backwards. Her fist immediately met a cheekbone. There was a lot of clattering and a muffled growl of pain.

"_Fuck_!" a familiar voice grunted.

Claire quickly lurched forward and kneeled on the opposite edge of the bed. Her heart jumped on her throat when she saw a pair of long fingered hands covering the blonde woman's face. Even though she couldn't see her, Claire knew it was the same face she had expected so much to see in her nightmare last night.

Claire noticed a golden ring on her left hand that matched perfectly with the blonde's ring. What the _hell_? Now she was a lot more confused. The redhead swallowed hard and whispered the first name she could think of, even though she had no idea where that came from.

"Alice?"

The tall blonde sprawled on the floor removed her hands from her face, and seeing her brought to Claire a mixture of pleasure and pain. Green, confused eyes greeted her along with a sly smile, and Claire was sure she had never seen a woman so beautiful in her life.

"Morning," Alice said, her hoarse voice making Claire shiver pleasurably. "What was that for, honey?" she sat up gingerly. "It's the second time this week-"

Claire did not reply. She could not take her eyes away from Alice either. The blonde stood up and watched the breakfast mess on the floor. She didn't seem to acknowledge Claire's desperate look towards her.

"Well, let's see…" Alice put her hands on her hips, her brow deep furrowed. "I'll just…" she squatted and started to collect the ruined food. There were scrambled eggs and toasts, broken china and a puddle of dark brown liquid on the carpet. "If you didn't want the _crappuccino_, you could just have said it."

Claire held her breath at the joke. That rang a bell – the bell of an old memory she could not quite catch yet.

Feeling like she hadn't eaten in years, her mouth watered with the meal she had just ruined, but she could not even move to help Alice to try and salvage anything. There seemed to be something wrong with Alice too; Claire had the impression that she was too smiley.

The redhead watched her closely. There was something different about her appearance as well. The Alice in her mind was a lot rougher, silent and, well, filthy. Now Alice's skin was silky, and her hair looked clean. It wasn't astray or with the looks that the last haircut it got was with a blunt scissor. She wore loose, khaki pants, and a very tight, navy-blue top. Where the fuck those clean clothes came from? They even smelled like detergent…

When the talking Alice left the bedroom with everything wrapped in a table cloth, Claire noticed a mirror on the wall. She stood up slowly and walked to it. The image shocked her a lot, because that was not how she remembered of herself. Her hair looked clean too, shinny, and very well-tended. Despite the disheveled mess it was now, she knew it would look just perfect after she combed it. Her face was dusty-free, and her nails were clean… She parted both ends of the bed sheet and chanced a look at her body. No scars, no mud…

Maybe she was still too caught up with that stupid dream; a chuckle from the doorway startled her and made her heart jolt inside her chest. Alice was leaning against it with her arms folded, and damn they still looked muscular and hot – at least _that _remained unchanged. However, the curiosity Claire felt was showing differently on her expression, because Alice drew near her looking worried. She pulled the redhead to the bed and sat down next to her.

"Are you alright?" Claire nodded, looking at their matching rings. Alice didn't miss that. "Look, I know it's a lot. Hell, I know that… Honey, I'm sorry if… I think that, when I freaked out, I said many things that… Well, they're not true. Of course I'm ready for this."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Claire whispered with a frown, hoping that finally things would start to make sense.

"I'm talking about the best day of my life," Alice held her hands with hers, sending waves of warmth that comforted her from head to toes. There was so much love in her green eyes that Claire really started to feel scared that _this_ was just a dream.

"Why don't you take a long shower while I prepare us some breakfast again, hm?" the blonde pulled her up. "Maybe not too long, though. Mrs. Henderson is expecting us by ten."

Claire merely agreed with a silent nod, feeling bounded to it. She really wanted to see where that was heading, when something occurred to her. The redhead could not believe that she had forgotten about the girl. "K-Mart," she whispered.

"What?"

"Where's K-Mart?" her sudden panic brought Alice once again back to her side. Now Claire was scared; what if _that_ had been just a dream too? How come she could have made up something huge like that?

"Hey, calm down," the blonde shushed her – _shushed _her, for God's sake!

"You're asking me to calm down? I promised her I would not leave her! She's just a child, she can't-"

"Hey, hey! Claire…" Alice held her by the shoulders. Claire held her breath. "Relax! I know she's a little girl! We're going to pick her as soon as you're ready, okay? Mrs. Henderson is not giving her away to other parents, I promise you."

"Parents?" Claire repeated, and it made Alice smile.

"Yeah," she whispered, planting a kiss on Claire's temple. "We're going to be a happy little family, baby. Now go shower."

_C'mon, Claire. I don't do happy families._

_What's happy about anything, anyway?_

She was still too stunned to answer. Alice kept babbling something as she moved to the _kitchen_. God, it was their house… Claire was afraid to ask more questions and find out she merely woke up to insanity.

It was really not in her nature to accept orders like that – even if they sounded too smooth and caring - and it was completely out of her character to do things without questioning first, but just this time she felt too tired to put up a fight. It was Alice assuring her that K-Mart existed and that they were heading to get her. And for some unexplained reason, Claire knew she trusted Alice with all her heart.

Claire entered a fancy bathroom adjacent to the room, and the nice scents of soap and shampoo swirled around her senses; there was condensation on the mirror surface, and there was a fluffy towel folded on top of the sink, apparently for her to use.

She knew she was clean, but somehow Claire felt like she really needed to enjoy it. However, her mind was too focused on K-Mart to relax. She washed her body from nothing in particular, except that she noticed remnants of obvious sex she didn't remembered having with Alice.

Dripping wet and with the towel wrapped around her body, Claire stopped in front of a large closet and studied her options. One side of it contained military suits carefully folded next to regular clothes. Frowning, she reached out for a camouflaged jacket and unfolded it. The name sewn above the chest pocket said MAJOR A. ABERNATHY, so obviously it wasn't hers.

The other side had casual articles, with simple colors that she actually liked, and everything in there seemed to fit her pretty well – shoes, jeans, t-shirts and even underwear. Claire didn't remember buying any of that, but Alice seemed to have a good taste and trained eyes, too.

The blonde was waiting for her in the kitchen, pressing an ice pack on her cheek as she placed hot toasts down the counter.

"I'm really sorry about that," Claire muttered.

"Don't worry about it," Alice chuckled, grabbing the coffee pot and serving two cups.

They ate breakfast in silence while the news echoed from the small TV on the counter. The Raccoon News anchor announced the gas price skyrocketing and something related to facial lotions that had collateral effects on consumers. When the Umbrella name was mentioned, Alice turned off the device with a disgruntled look on her face.

"Bastards," she grunted, and turned to look at Claire. "Let's not ruin your day with them. You ready?"

Claire once again just managed to nod. Well, if they had a common hatred towards Umbrella, then some things were in the right place, and that soothed her a little. She walked out of the house with Alice closely following her, one hand in her lower back. And there, gleaming under the sun that woke her up, stood her shinny-

"_Prius?"_ she whispered to herself with a look of utter disbelief. Why the hell would she drive a _Prius_?

"_Shit_!" Alice hissed. "I forgot my license. Do you know where it is?"

Claire shook her head. "I have no idea." Well, that was not a lie at all.

"Crap…"

She watched Alice re-enter their house with a small smile. _Their_ house. If that was a dream, then hell, it was such a nice dream. Noticing she was not carrying the car keys, she simply took the passenger seat; Claire had no idea where they were going anyway.

"Hey, sweetheart!"

She jumped from her seat with the sound of another familiar voice. It was… Mikey. A very clean, properly dressed Mikey. Why was she under the impression that everyone she knew was supposed to be covered in dirt?

"Morning," Claire said with a frown, noticing he wore a green polo shirt with the words Terra Save inked in large capital letters across his chest.

"I know it's your day off, but look at this!" He showed her a huge Terra Save insignia sticker. "It's for cars! Pretty amazing, eh?"

"Uh…"

Mikey stared deeply into her eyes. "Forget it, I'm sorry. Today's the big day, huh?" he looked down at his Timberland boots and then back at her with that familiar sadness. His eyes were on her ring for a second and then up. "It still feels like _we_ were making those plans, you know… I'd get a job, buy a nice car… We'd bring Terra Save to the world-"

"You brought Terra Save out alright," Alice showed up at his side, nudging him away with her elbow, passing a handbag to Claire through the window. "But you still got a very shitty car, Mickey."

He grimaced at her insistence on pronouncing his name like the stupid cartoon, but then his eyes were back on Claire as the blonde went around the vehicle to take her seat. "So, is she finally… willing to raise a little Redfield?"

"Redfield-Abernathy, like Claire," Alice said even more harshly, slamming her door shut and fastening her seatbelt. "It's been three years already, boy. Stop acting like you don't know that yet."

"Alice-" Claire touched the blonde's arm with a warning look on her face. She remembered how their last conversation had ended. Except that Mikey's nose didn't look crooked anymore. Claire was positive Alice had broken his nose.

"That's okay," Mikey assured her with a small grin. "Congratulations, you two. And I'll see you around. Or next week at work," he said that only to Claire, who pursed her lips and nodded.

Alice grunted something and started the car. She put the gear into reverse mode and they left the parking spot in front of their garage. They lived – and Claire assumed she was taking it right – in a nice neighborhood. And they had been married for three years. And they were going to adopt K-Mart.

Claire felt like her brain was on a frying pan. She had memories from her childhood and adolescence. She remembered going to college in Raccoon University, and she remembered vaguely about Terra Save, though it didn't sound like a non-profitable organization to her.

It was a perfect paradise, but it felt like she was living someone else's life.

"Look, I'm sorry," Alice said quietly. "I know it drives you mad when I'm rude to him, but… He hates me too! He just… fakes it better than me."

Claire turned to look at Alice with an amused grin on her face. Had she tamed Alice? Really? The blonde had a small frown of concern as she waited for Claire to speak.

"Maybe you could try and be fake-nice to him, too. Starting by saying his name right."

"But that's just when you're around, right?"

"It's a start," Claire agreed, grinning at how cute Alice looked. "Why do you still hate him so much?"

"Because… He's Mikey! It's my nature to hate Mikey! I mean, he's your college ex-boyfriend and wingman! He's all over you when he's got a chance, and he just acts all nice to me when you're looking. Trust me, he hates me a _lot_ more than I hate him. It's not my fault I'm much more attractive," Alice gave her a cocky smile. "I totally tagged him out and he just can't suck it up."

"And… How was that again?" Claire asked with a provocative grin. She was really curious to know how the hell they ended up so perfectly together.

"You like hearing that, don't you?" Alice asked with a smirk. "You sexy egomaniac."

Claire sighed and rolled her eyes. "Seriously, how-?" She went silent for a moment, frowning as she stared deeply into Alice's profile, suddenly being hit by an image of the blonde driving a different car in a completely different outfit. "Where's your hat?"

Even though it came out as a faint whisper, Alice had no problem hearing her. "You do realize it looks ridiculous with civilian clothes, right? I won't be wearing my uniform for a week and-" she had a devilish grin on her lips when she turned to Claire. "Unless… does that turn you on?" and before the redhead could say anything in her defense, Alice was already babbling. "I thought that day inside the locker room had been just to spice things up, you know… Like when you decided to buy those Victoria's Secrets finest-"

"That's not what I'm talking about!" Claire exclaimed, feeling the heat crawling from her neck to her ears and cheeks.

Alice chuckled at her blushed face. "Fine. But I can wear the cap if you like it."

"I'm talking about the-" Claire forced her memory to grasp the picture for a second longer "-that stupid… cowboy hat. The one you wear all the time."

"I don't have one." It was Alice who frowned now, but she quickly turned it into a dirty smirk. She curved her lips to the left and faked an accent. "Did you get me one, lady?"

"Who are you and what did you do to Alice?" Claire grunted, shaking her head in disbelief. The cowboy impersonation reminded her of another distant, blurred face.

"I know you prefer when I wake you up with sex instead of breakfast. At least I think you do, because you never punch me," Alice said in a husky voice. "But come on, grumpy… I'll take care of that later."

While Claire tried to ignore the urge to kiss Alice for being so cute, the blonde parked in front of a two store building surrounded by short fence and a beautiful garden. She really wanted to see K-Mart, but she was giving that 'later' business a lot of thought too. Claire took the handbag and reached out to open the door, stopping midway when Alice called her.

"Hey."

Claire looked back and found green eyes scrutinizing her so deeply that it almost felt like being undressed in public. "What?"

"I know you're edgy because I bailed on you once… But I promise everything's gonna be alright this time."

The redhead offered her a smile. "I know."

They crossed the front lawn, climbed a few steps to the double doors, and then walked together through a wide and long corridor. It looked like a school, but she was not sure of it yet. Alice stopped in front of a door, took a deep breath and knocked.

"Come in," said a voice from inside.

The blonde held the doorknob for a moment and then finally pulled it open. It was a very large office and a woman in her mid-fifties sat behind a desk, apparently already waiting for them.

"Good morning," she said with a polite smile, pointing the chairs for them to sit.

"Thank you for calling us, Mrs. Henderson," Alice said, pulling the chair for Claire and then taking the other for herself. "We're really glad you checked our papers again."

"I understand you really want to adopt her, but I also want to be sure you are aware of all the responsibilities that come along being a parent. Especially in this case. Same-sex marriage sadly is still considered a scandal, and I don't need to mention what some people think of two mothers."

"We know that," Alice said, looking at Claire for support. The redhead turned to Mrs. Henderson.

"We can handle it," she said a little insecure. K-Mart was just part of Claire's life and now someone wanted to decide if that would go on the same way? As if a piece of paper would change anything she already knew.

"So, Mrs. Abernathy-" surprisingly it was Claire that she was addressing, and not Alice. "How's Terra Save going? You're the president," she said, checking the file in her hands.

Claire gulped. "Yeah," she said faintly when the woman peered up at her over the rim of her glasses. "We're… doing well." Claire had no idea what she was talking about.

"Have you heard of this new lotion Umbrella put on the market? I almost bought one, and look what happened to those poor people…" she shook her head slightly. "Are you planning on taking any action against them?"

Claire felt Alice's foot grazing softly against her leg under the desk. "Not now, I don't. We're more worried about… adopting. I want to focus on that first."

She sensed Alice relaxing on her chair at those words. Apparently she was a bit of a workaholic environmentalist.

"You started the group at college, right?" Mrs. Henderson inquired again. "Who's going to be in charge while you take care of Becky?"

Claire took a deep breath and frowned slightly. "Mikey," she said promptly. "He's in charge of the campaigns for now." K-Mart's real name wasn't Becky; she had no idea what it was, but she _knew_ it wasn't Becky.

"Well, that's good," Mrs. Henderson said after a few seconds, checking more papers. "Now, Major… How does that work for you? I remember the first time, when you were a little insecure about it."

"I'm relocating from my base, and now I'm permanent here. I'll supervise the Raccoon Police Department so I can stay home every day."

"And how does the Army feel about all that?"

"I don't talk about my personal life there. I just follow the rules and keep them satisfied."

"Good… I see you have a good income… House in the suburbs… Do you have any pets now? Becky is allergic to cats, but I believe you already know that."

"No, no pets," Alice said.

"Well then. I assume you're going to consider the support we offer for the kids?"

"Yes, if we think Becky needs it," Alice shrugged.

"She'll need it," Mrs. Henderson stated. "Even with all the love and care I am sure you are disposed to offer, children tend to have issues in their late adolescence, sometimes regarding their real parents' whereabouts and any other thing related to them. As for school bullies, promise me you won't threat students just because you're in the Army, Major Abernathy."

"I wouldn't do that," Alice gave her an awkward smile. "Again."

"And when have you ever done that?" Claire spluttered. She forgot she was supposed to know it, and for a terrible second she wondered whether she had ruined her chances of seeing K-Mart.

"When you were just a little brat in RU," Alice said and then looked at the woman. "It was about eight years ago, Mrs. Henderson. Claire put on the biggest riot of Raccoon City's History, and caused the biggest traffic jam ever registered in the State, and someone had to stop her!"

"And yet she fell in love with you," the woman grinned broadly. "I have no idea how come a pacifist and a soldier could ever get into… terms."

"Me neither," Alice chuckled, throwing a sideway glance at Claire and then turning back to the older woman. "But it works."

Mrs. Henderson nodded with a small grin. "You just have to sign a lot of paperwork now. Here," she handed two identical packs to Alice and Claire. "When you're done you can follow me. Becky is on the playground waiting for you."

Claire looked astonished at the blonde, who mouthed "_Nice move, sexy_!" and gave her the thumbs up. Whatever that meant, they had conquered the woman's trust and they were finally taking K home.

The playground area was overgrown with kids and cheerful shrieks. The redhead wondered what the teen could be possibly finding interesting in there, but when the trees and bushes were finally out of the way, she took a look at large and spotted no one older than seven or eight.

"Where's she?" she asked, craning her neck to look for the long blond hair and the bracelet covered wrists. However, a little girl came running towards them, and she had a small bag on her shoulders that wobbled to the sides. Her hair was dark blond and quite bushy, and she had a wide smile plastered on her face.

She jumped at the redhead's arms completely unannounced, but Claire managed to hold her just fine, only a little surprised with the gesture. She had green eyes that looked exactly like Alice's, and that caught her a little off guard.

"Hey, little one," she whispered, instantly feeling her heart melt. If she could, she would take her too without even thinking about it. To her deep astonishment, Alice approached them and collected the girl's bag and slung it over her shoulder.

The little girl grinned at Alice and made a gesture that the blonde mirrored immediately.

"Claire and I have been practicing," Alice explained to Mrs. Henderson and the young teacher that joined them a moment later. "We love you too, Becky," she whispered and threw a lovesick smile at Claire.

Claire swallowed the lump in her throat and was forced to smile in return, noticing the girl used signs to communicate. She tilted her head slightly towards Alice's ear. "What about K-Mart?" she hissed, glad that at least they were taking Becky.

"We're about to get there," Alice assured her and stretched her arms to the little girl. "Come on, my turn."

Becky went willingly with Alice and Claire took the chance to adjust her heavy bag on her shoulder. She had never been much of a purse girl as far as she could remember, but hadn't that escalated. It felt like she was carrying a car engine on her shoulder.

"Call if you need anything," Mrs. Henderson said to her. "We'll have a social assistant visiting you very soon."

"Sure," Claire nodded, watching Alice take Becky to the car. "Thank you, Mrs. Henderson."

"Always a pleasure, Mrs. Abernathy."

Claire turned on her heels with a stupid smile on her face. It still sounded very weird to be called that, but she was growing fond of it. When she went past the entrance gate and got to the sidewalk, Alice was already adjusting Becky on the booster seat of the Prius, the Hello Kitty backpack hanging pathetically on her arm.

Chuckling, Claire took it and walked to the passenger seat. Soon they were riding through the agitated streets of Raccoon City again. Claire's heart sunk when Alice parked in front of a K-Mart store.

"You're kidding, right?" she asked, feeling dormant anger suddenly sprouting to life.

"I told you we'd come here since you woke up," the blonde hissed over the car hood to prevent Becky from noticing their disagreement. "We only have organic, and we need to get kid food for her, remember? Greasy and chemically colored? What's the matter with you today, Claire?"

She did not wait for a response as she locked the car and held Becky's hand. They started to move towards the front doors of the supermarket, and Claire just followed, feeling cranky that she was the only one there who seemed to be missing a large chunk from that story.

Differently from what she would have expected from Alice, Claire found it very easy to keep up with her. Maybe it was because she was respecting Becky's shorter legs, but still she didn't move or even sounded like the Alice Claire thought she knew.

The inside of the store was packed with people shopping. Alice selected a cart and put Becky inside; the girl chuckled as the tall blonde pushed it, accelerating her pace and making noises of screeching tires. Claire wanted to be mad at her, but it was simply impossible.

She hurried after them and met both by the cereal aisle. Alice was holding about five boxes in her arms and staring confused at them, trying to make the hand signs for Becky to help her.

"What you think?" the blonde asked when she saw Claire. "Fruit Loops are colorful, but this one has marshmallow bits."

Claire rolled her eyes, chuckling. "I think she will like anything you pick, Alice."

The redhead merely stood there, watching their interaction. The way Alice's clumsiness made Becky laugh was just too good to be true. She was smiling like an idiot again, until she caught, on the blonde's other side, stretched arms fumbling for cereal boxes – arms that were covered in bracelets.

Claire hurried past Alice and found a mane of blond hair that made her heart stop.

"K-Mart?" she whispered.

The girl turned around with a small frown, chewing bubblegum without any politeness. She was wearing the K-Mart's blue uniform, but her name tag said 'Dahlia'.

"Yep, this is the K-Mart," she said, looking at Claire with a frown. "Can I help you?"

"Actually, yes, you can," Alice said, hurrying to get into the conversation. "Which one you prefer?" She showed up three different brands of cereals.

The teen picked at her ruined nail polish and popped a gigantic pink gumball before answering. "None of these," she said, going back to adding more boxes to the shelf. She craned her neck and saw Becky inside the cart and couldn't help but give the girl a bright smile. She looked back at Alice. "Go for Cheerios. She'll like it."

"Cheerios," the tall woman smiled at the teen and went back to her scavenging. "Cheerios… How many you think, baby? Four boxes? Maybe five?"

"She never buys groceries, huh?" the blonde teen said in low voice to Claire with an amused smirk. She frowned again when the redhead did not respond and just stared blankly at her. "Uh… Are you okay?"

"Your real name is Dahlia," Claire muttered, not exactly looking at the girl. "And you were found at a K-Mart store."

For a moment, she felt like she was going to pass out. Flashes of her life went past her eyes and then everything came back to Claire. The convoy. Chris. Chase. Otto. Alice. Alice leaving her. Umbrella. The ambush. What the hell was she doing in that city that did not even exist anymore? And how come she was married to Alice if Alice was gone? What kind of sick joke was that?

"What day is today?" Claire asked harshly, trying to hide the panic that was dominating her completely.

"Monday," K-Mart said after popping another gumball, obviously still confused with the weird woman's attitude.

"Monday," she repeated and picked a cereal box. Claire checked the expiration date at the bottom. It was the year of the outbreak, and unless Umbrella could send people back on time, she was pretty sure that was a _very_ sick joke. The redhead looked at the teen. "Can you show me where the electronics are?"

"Six aisles to the left, one to the right - hey!" she protested when Claire grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her along.

"I suck with coordinates," the redhead lied. "Come on, Alice."

Alice frowned intrigued. She recognized that alert tone, so she picked Becky on her arms and left the cart there. They could come back for the Cheerios later. The teenager grumpily guided them, and pointed the TV's and stereos area. Claire froze in front of one of the screens that were displaying the news channel.

She remembered the headlines about the plane crash that fatidic morning. It had been on the news all over the country, and she remembered vividly being on a café in her hometown while people talked about terrorist attacks. It had been in the same day the population of Raccoon City was locked up to die.

"We have to get out of here," Claire hissed, pulling Alice and K-Mart with her. She came to a sudden halt when both refused to move.

"What you think you're doing?" the teen asked angrily. "I don't even know you!"

"Claire, what's wrong?" Alice shifted Becky to her other arm, the little girl watching their interaction with a confused look on her face.

"The t-virus! The outbreak! Umbrella is going to kill us all, we have to run away from here-"

"I'm not going anywhere with you," K-Mart said. "And I still have cereals to line up in the food's section. My boss is going to kill me if-"

Suddenly everything around Claire just froze. Time stood still and sounds went mute as everyone stopped moving and stared blankly at her like lifeless bodies. A female robotic voice boomed from up above.

"_Stand by. Testing environment initializing in ten seconds."_

Claire looked around, horror-struck that no one other than her seemed to be aware of what was going on. "You don't need to _actually_ stand by!" she yelled tentatively, running a hand in front of Alice's paralyzed face. "Are you all people _stupid_? This is a fucking trap!"

"_Stand by. Sequence initializing in six seconds."_

"Oh my God," she gasped, looking at K-Mart and then at Becky. Both girls were completely motionless, expressing no fear or any emotion whatsoever. "K? Becky? Alice? _Shit-"_

"_Stand by. Suburbia sequence initialized."_

Everyone simply slipped back to reality just as if nothing had happened. The sounds and chattering around the store replaced the voice. Alice adjusted the hem of the little girl's t-shirt and the teen resumed her disgusting chewing as she scowled at Claire. A sudden growl made the redhead's heart skip a beat.

"K-Mart, watch out-"

"Look, I just _work_ here! My name's Dah-"

"Get down, girl!" Alice exclaimed, pushing her out of the way as a gnarling creature came towards her. He had blood on his shirt and his milky eyes travelled from one woman to the other. "Hold Becky!" she said harshly to Claire, who caught the girl in her arms protectively. The blonde lifted the hem of her pants and removed a gun from a strap around her calf. "Stay behind me," she ordered, holding out one arm to prevent Claire or K-Mart to come forward.

Claire instinctively reached out for her rifle on her shoulder, but then she remembered they had taken it from her. Instead, she cupped Becky's face with one hand and brought her closer. The little girl's immediate response was to round her neck with both arms. K-Mart looked horrified at the scene, not sure if she was more worried about the creature or Alice having a gun.

Well, at least Alice had a gun, and like the old Alice, she did not hesitate to use it. The first gunshot echoed all over the ceiling and corridors, and suddenly there seemed to be a lot more costumers in there, all of them terrified, running and yelling.

"We have to get out of here," Claire repeated to the blonde, desperate to find the old Alice in those green eyes, but the blonde wasn't exactly the woman Claire had known.

"I have to get _you_ out of here," Alice gnarled, pulling her by the arm and beckoning the teen to follow.

"Don't pull the sexist douche on me now!" Claire hissed, holding Becky and making sure the girl was not seeing much of the chaotic onslaught that unrolled right before their eyes as more and more of those creatures invaded the place. "You know fucking well I can-"

"Honey, you can totally babble about that later, okay? Now hurry!" Alice asked, not being exactly harsh but neither too mellow. Claire rolled her eyes and they headed out of the store to the parking lot, the blonde shooting the undead and yelling at people to run and get out of their way.

Alice shoved the pistol on the back of her pants and took Becky from Claire's arms so the redhead could go faster towards the car and unlock it. Even though she was carrying the girl, Alice easily kept pace with the redhead, and when Claire sat down in the car, she put Becky on her lap and closed the door. Slightly breathless, she leaned on the window and stared at her wife, droplets of sweat running down her forehead.

"So, what's up with that talk inside, Nostradamus?" she panted. "Baby, what Terra Save knew that you didn't tell me?"

"I-" Claire's voice failed when she noticed someone was missing. "Where's K-Mart?"

"Claire, please, just answer my question-"

"Dahlia! The girl from K-Mart that was with us! She's not here!"

Alice looked back at the store's main entrance, watching the hysterical crowd leaving in a hurry. There were shards of glass raining over them. People were shattering the windows with chairs to escape from the upper floors using the building's rail and the roof.

"Claire, she could be anywhere now. And we don't even know her."

"I know her," she said, her voice broken, trying to stand up from her seat. "She… She doesn't remember me, but I… I virtually watched that kid grow up, Alice."

The blonde sighed; the idea of leaving her wife and kid inside a car was really _not_ part of her plan, but the look on Claire's face was somewhat stronger than anything she wanted to do. "Fine," she finally grunted, avoiding the redhead's eyes for a second as she watched the battle and collected her gun, handing it to the redhead. "Take this. If I don't come back-"

"You better, Alice," Claire cut her harshly. "And you'll need this down there," she pushed the weapon back to her hand.

Alice swallowed and stared deeply into Claire's eyes. The leader saw the blonde's lips part, and she knew what Alice was going to say to her. "Don't," she begged. "Don't say it."

The blonde patted Becky's hair with a brittle smile and looked deeply into Claire's eyes for the last time before spinning on her heels. Claire held the little girl against her body, watching the distant war zone apprehensively. It was in her blood, and her wish to be in the middle of the fight helping people was painfully strong, but not stronger than her will to keep Becky safe. The feeling she had for this girl was the same she had for K-Mart – an urge to protect and care that came spontaneously to her after five seconds of meeting them.

She just could not believe Umbrella had captured everyone, and while she had been lucky to get past the effects of whatever drug messed with her memory, the others seemed completely oblivious that they were living a big fat lie. Claire felt her hatred towards Umbrella grow exponentially, and as she held her breath waiting for Alice and K-Mart to return, a raspy, tiny voice caught her attention.

"Mommy?"

She looked surprised at Becky, the knot in her chest suddenly being untied by some sort of soothing warmth that she hadn't felt in her life yet.

"Is my other mommy coming back to us?" the girl asked again, using the signs to help.

Claire gulped. Her lower lip quivered slightly, but she was not allowing herself to break down in front of… her daughter. "Yes, sweetie," she whispered with a reassuring smile. "She's coming back for us."

That seemed to settle Becky just fine, and Claire was impressed by how quickly a child could trust a person. Except for K-Mart's earlier innocence, the redhead had not seen that in years.

"_Mommy_!" the girl cried, and instead of the warmth, Claire felt her chest constricting her lungs. The scene in front of her seemed to unroll slower than normal. Alice was running back to the car, dragging K-Mart by the hand, a look of terror covering their expressions.

Then there was a loud explosion and Umbrella's troops suddenly flooded the parking lot like a dark river, and they started to shoot – people and undead. Alice pushed K-Mart behind a car and took every single bullet meant for the girl. Claire felt a painful and raw scream erupting from her throat as Alice fell on her knees in the middle of the parking lot, her gun falling from her hand as her lifeless form collapsed on the ground.

"ALICE!" she yelled furiously. "Stay down," she ordered Becky as she jumped out of the car and locked the doors, ignoring the sudden lack of oxygen in her body. She stumbled towards the car where the teen was hidden. Two undead were already circling the vehicle and surrounded the teen. "K-MART! No, no, you stay away from her, you bastards- K-Mart!" she yelled hoarsely, the teen looking at her with fear in her eyes. She was paralyzed. "No, K-Mart, please! Run, just- NO!"

Claire gasped for air when the teen was attacked by two undead. They were shot by the Umbrella soldiers a second too late, and the redhead felt her knees falter when she saw that. They were probably going to shoot her too, and then Becky-

"_Fuck_!" Claire sobbed, and she ran back to the Prius and quickly took the driver's seat. She helped Becky up and buckled the girl's seatbelt. "Hold on, honey. I'm taking us out of here."

She hit the gas pedal and clenched her teeth, trying to avoid pedestrians and other vehicles. Dustbins clung loudly past the hood of the car when she swerved from people and drove up the sidewalk. She went back to the street and checked the rear view mirror.

A horde of undead was chasing them, faster and a lot smarter than the ones she was used to. She swallowed hard, unable to distract her thoughts from the worst day of her life. Pain and anger didn't even begin to describe what she was feeling. Trying to catch her breath, Claire reached out for Becky's hand. She felt the little girl's small fingers clasping around hers, and she hated that she could do nothing to change their fate. Whatever that place was, it was going to be destroyed by the apocalypse again.

Claire remained on main avenues so she wouldn't get lost, and more out of despair than sense of direction, she managed to find the suburbs and the neighborhood they supposedly lived in. It was desert and ruined, and a few cars were on fire, the sound of their alarms going off echoing all over the street. Many houses had their front doors broken and glass windows shattered, and there were corpses everywhere over the well-tended lawns and gardens.

The redhead parked in front of the house she had left a few hours ago and helped Becky out of the car. With some luck, she would find food and water for the girl, not to mention tools she could use as weapons in case they needed to face another attack. Claire decided to keep the lights off as she marched carefully through the house with Becky holding her hand.

She fumbled the kitchen's drawers and found a sharp knife. The redhead silently gestured the stairs to Becky, and the little girl nodded a little apprehensively. Claire held out the knife, ready to stab anything or anyone that tried to hurt them.

The redhead had no idea how she had missed that before, but now she spotted a closed door with the name 'Becky' hanging on it in colored letters.

"Wanna see your room?" Claire whispered. Becky nodded slowly; she had traces of dry tears on both cheeks that made Claire even more miserable than she already felt. She picked up the girl in her free arm and gave the door a soft kick.

Once the door swung open, it revealed a pink room fully decorated with the Hello Kitty theme. Becky smiled – a very watery smile – and jumped off Claire's hold to walk around. The woman stood by the door with the knife still at ready, but she could not help watching the girl's awe.

"Is it just for me? I don't have to share anymore?" Becky asked as she drew closer. Claire only managed to smile and nod, but Becky hugged her around the waist and looked up at her. "Thank you, mommy."

Claire kneeled down and hugged her strongly, pulling some loose strands of her blond hair behind her ear. "You have your other mommy's eyes," she whispered against Becky's shoulder, not sure why she was saying that. She drew back and cupped her left cheek. "Come see the rest of the house."

Hand in hand, they walked around. The tour was meant for Claire too, because she didn't have the chance to explore the place before. It was a typical suburban house, nicely decorated and cozy, and it was hard to believe that everything there was make-believe bullshit.

Claire decided it was a lot worse than waking up from a nightmare.

Once she certified every room was safe from undead, Claire broke apart a fancy looking coffee table in the living room and nailed the wooden boards on the front door and windows, adding furniture to barricade the entrance. She found more furniture to dismantle and secure the rest of the house, and she was completely wasted when she was finished.

Becky accepted some food Claire found and managed to prepare with her limited cooking skills, and after a long and hot shower, she put the girl down the bed she never shared with Alice.

_Alice_.

God, that hurt…

"Where's mommy?" Becky asked in a sleepy tone. "You said she would come back with that girl."

Claire felt her heart clench.

_K-Mart._

That _really_ hurt.

"I know I said, honey," she whispered. "But she's protecting us out there, okay?"

"When they come back, the girl will sleep with me in my bedroom so mommy stays here with you?"

Claire had no idea of what she should say. Instead, she kissed Becky's cheek and ran her fingers through her hair very slowly. The little girl fell asleep quicker than she had expected, and Claire took her time wandering around the house, trying to force her mind to accept that what was there was not the truth. It was very difficult, though. She kept staring at many portraits on the living room, and it was damn hard to watch her fake happiness before her.

There was a picture of Alice covered in pink paint, holding a brush. She was in the bedroom that now was Becky's, smiling at the camera. Claire was on the next frame, messed red hair tied into a knot at the top of her head, wearing Alice's military jacket and nothing else, displaying her legs on the corridor and offering a naughty smile. There was a third portrait with the two of them, glaring at each other, unaware of the world and the camera.

There were pictures all over the walls too – Alice in her uniform, Claire all dressed up, Chris and Alice giving each other awkward, one-arm hugs, Mikey holding her around the waist while Alice gave the finger on the background… And nothing was real. Claire sighed and sat down, sticking the knife in the ankle of her boot.

She rested her sore back against the wall and buried her face on her hands for a second. When she felt the cold metal on her eyebrow, Claire stared down at her left hand and noticed the ring. She removed it and observed the golden band for a while, playing with it around her fingers.

There was an inscription in the internal side, and she wasn't surprised when she read _Property of Umbrella Corporation_. Now she understood Alice and her angry impulse to destroy that nasty company. She put the ring in her pocket and sighed.

It felt like her heart had been ripped apart from her chest, and Claire had no idea if her body could endure that amount of sorrow. She was going to dedicate every fiber of her body on killing each and every member of Umbrella. Claire was going to protect Becky until the day she died, but she would make sure it would only happen when Umbrella didn't exist anymore.

She would hold on for K-Mart, for Alice, and for everyone she had lost because of them. She picked the portrait of Alice and her staring at each other, looking happy in that fucking parallel universe Umbrella had created.

Desolated, Claire climbed up the stairs and entered the bedroom as quietly as possible. She removed her boots and placed the knife on the bedside table. Becky lay fast asleep, and Claire brought the girl closer, wrapping one arm around her. Tears ran free down her face as thoughts of Alice and K-Mart flashed past her mind.

They could have been a fucking happy little family. Except that Umbrella seemed to get a kick out of taking that away from them whenever they got closer to accomplish it.


	2. Terra Save

**N/A: Took me a little longer to finish this one, but thanks to everyone for the reviews, messages and follows! I hope you have fun! =)**

**Disclaimer: see chapter one.**

** Save**

"You know…" Jill stared out of the window, watching the rain falling down. It could be fascinating after spending so much time without it. "Maybe we should fill those bottles that are in the trunk. I don't like to waste an opportunity to have water."

"And by 'we' you obviously mean 'me'," Carlos softly hit the brake, observing the downpour as he kept both hands on the steering wheel. "I'll go get them."

"Good. Scrub your face better this time."

"Comedy really doesn't suit you, Jill," he smirked and jumped out of the car. Carlos didn't even bother running; he unlocked the trunk and collected the empty recipients they had kept for no reason in particular. The water felt really great against his skin, and after certifying that the brunette wasn't looking, he rubbed his hands against his temples and forehead.

Inside the car, Jill turned around on her seat and kneeled on it with her arms around the headrest to face the passenger on the back; Alice stared blankly down at her bloodied hands. They had been driving for about an hour, and she had not said a single word so far. She had barely moved, and it was almost as if she was not really there.

"Hey," Jill called softly.

The blonde looked up. The blaze in her green eyes had faded completely, and yet there seemed to be a lot of emotions inside them. Jill had no idea what Alice had been through the time they stood apart, but she was sure a lot had happened – and changed.

She had always seen Alice like a mysterious person, the typical outsider that moved along the lines of the 'no strings attached' lifestyle. She was cool and cold, and she knew nothing could stop her. Her air of arrogance and self-sufficiency was not charming, but it was bearable once you got to live with her for a while. Jill had even missed it.

However, what she saw now was a woman in pain. It was scary how Alice looked like she was just about to break.

"How are you feeling?"

The blonde stared out of the window, keeping one eye on Carlos. He was really enjoying himself out there, and she absolutely couldn't understand what was so funny about being bossed around all the time.

"He's completely whipped," Alice muttered and stared back at Jill with an inquisitive frown.

"He's a gentleman. There's a difference," the brunette smirked, watching the man capping the bottles carefully and placing them by his feet before he went to the next one. "But don't tell him I said that."

Alice shrugged. She played with her filthy fingers, clearly not interested on moving forward with their conversation.

"I'm pretty sure it's the weather that is preventing us from finding them over the radio," Jill said tentatively. "Let's just wait for the rain to stop, and then we can try again."

Alice shifted uncomfortably on her seat. She was desperate to get out of the car and walk all the way to Raccoon City. She had to do something with her hands and legs, because it was disastrous when tension and energy accumulated in her body.

Jill was not settling for the silent treatment, though. "Or we can try it right now. Yeah, let's-"

"Don't do it," Alice warned her.

"What? I thought you wanted to find your friends-"

"Just… Don't."

The brunette scowled at her. "Why?"

"It's not the weather."

Jill sighed. "You think they left?"

Alice thought they were ignoring her. That convoy had every reason to hate her, and she didn't blame them. It was her fault that Claire was in Umbrella's hands now, and if anything happened to her…

Her blood roused dangerously in her veins, and Alice knew it would not end well unless she calmed down.

"If you wanna get anywhere with this car in one piece-" Alice hissed through clenched teeth "-just leave it alone. We can try later."

Jill opened her mouth to retort, but she was interrupted when Carlos stuck his head inside her window. "Is everything alright in here?"

"Let's get going, Olivera," the brunette grunted, turning back to sit straight. "You've got plenty already."

He didn't look much convinced, but complied anyway. Carlos put the bottles back in the trunk and took his seat behind the steering wheel. He was soaking wet, and Jill started to complain about him shaking off the water from his hair like a street dog.

"You're damn hard to please, woman," Carlos said with a hint of frustration on his voice, igniting the car and hitting the gas pedal.

Alice rolled her eyes and rested her head against the back of the seat. She held the duffel bag firmly between her hands and let Claire take control of her brain. Her smile, her eyes, her hair, her earthy scent, the nicotine, the cries in her ear…

_Because I love you. And I mean it exactly like that._

She closed her eyes, Jill's and Carlos's voices echoing from far away in the back of her head. She wondered how Claire would probably have liked to meet them, but then, on second thought, she could picture Claire and Jill being all territorial around each other. They were leaders, after all, and not followers.

**XXX**

Ada Wong kept her trained eyes on the door, watching the screen in front of her from time to time. She was actually relieved that Claire Redfield had survived the simulation without a scratch, but that was not a guarantee to escape Alice Abernathy's wrath. Ada was a professional killer, and she was a very good one, but without the t-virus in her blood, she really didn't stand a chance against the former Major.

Not that she really cared all that much. In the end, Ada had just found out her life had been dedicated to a company that took the only thing she had, and now she had nothing left to lose anyway. She forgot about the door for a minute and ran her hands over the keyboard.

She zoomed in the camera set in a pole on the K-Mart's parking lot, where dozens of those stumbling creatures wandered aimlessly, Alice's and Dahlia's clones among them. The blonde looked so unimpressive compared to her real self that it was almost pathetic to watch her struggling to move a foot after the other.

Ada swapped channels and brought another scenario to her screen. The cameras inside the houses had better resolution, and that permitted her to check precisely what was going on with Claire.

The redhead had finally fallen asleep next to the girl, and Ada wondered whether she would notice if the lights diminished… It was supposedly around noon in the simulation area, but other than the two people on the bed, no one had the faintest idea of the time.

Ada had to admit that was cruel, even for Wesker's standards. She watched carefully as the fake sun started to fade on the image. She spun the light button slowly and gradually; Claire and the cloned girl did not even move.

Wesker entered the office and once again she had to refrain from cringing. His mere presence disgusted her, but she could not give away her position – at least not until Alice was there.

"How was the simulation?" he asked, sitting by the desk and observing the Asian woman carefully.

"Very amusing," Ada spat, looking up at him with a cold expression. His smirk made her want to punch the smugness out of his face. "I confess you almost got me fooled at first with that fairy tale romance, but really, Wesker… You _don't_ have a heart."

"I found it extremely relaxing to watch," Wesker said with a sly grin. He removed his sunglasses and cleaned the dark lenses with a tissue. "It was highly entertaining, but unfortunately I cannot take the credits for that."

"The Red Queen?" Ada inquired, faltering for a second and showing more surprise than she had intended.

"She planned everything," he explained, putting his glasses back on. "She developed this very realistic scenario, you see… The girl has imprinted memories, and she thinks Project Alice's clone and Redfield had already visited her several times in the orphanage. She has… _feelings_ for them."

"Why all the trouble just for one stupid simulation?" Ada asked with a frown, unable to see the whole point of that.

"That's where you're wrong, my dear," Wesker arched one eyebrow behind the glasses. "This… _plot_… was meant for more than one simulation. Claire Redfield survived her first test by being reunited with supposed old friends, but the Red Queen wants to see how far she'll go to protect the kid."

Ada shifted almost imperceptibly on her chair. "I thought we were keeping her alive as a bait to allure Project Alice."

"Oh, and we are," Wesker whispered dangerously. "Claire Redfield has been a pain in Umbrella's ass for many years, but the woman is stubborn. She will live enough to see Major Abernathy come for her, and then we will discard her, just like we do with every filthy traitor that crosses us. I'm sure you remember that."

She sighed and averted his invasive gaze, wishing she could simply reach out and rip his head off of his body.

"Yes, I know how things are done here," Ada said with a bored tone. "Anyway, why is the Red Queen so interested on Claire Redfield? And what's going to happen to Project Alice once you have her trapped here, ragging mad at us for kidnapping her friend?"

"Isn't it obvious to you? That brat has gone insane," he grinned. "If you thought she went homicidal down the Hive, you have no idea what she's plotting now. She wants to study humans' weaknesses, because she wants to annihilate our race."

"You _do_ know you are part of humans, right?"

"She's just a holographic child, agent Wong. Nothing that a potent cyber virus can't take care of when she gets in the way," Wesker said. "As for Abernathy… We only have enough of DNA material to make clones, and nothing will work like the original blood if we want to develop the serum that will put the T-virus to rest. After serving their purpose, Project Alice and the Red Queen will be History."

"So you intend to trick the Red Queen till the last minute? And you know what it will take to defeat Alice Abernathy. I expect you have an army just to deal with her, because-"

"There, there, Ada," he brought his face so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her cheek. "These walls have ears. You know everything you must know for now. And in due time-" Wesker looked around the room, checking for any unannounced arrivals "-I'll provide the weapons you'll need to stay alive. If you choose the right side, that is."

Ada felt relief when he made his way to the door, but there was one last thing she needed to know.

"Why the cloned girl has Project Alice's eyes?"

She knew Wesker had stopped midway from leaving and was considering whether to tell her the truth or not.

"She's a Petri dish child," he said quietly. "But Project Alice _is _her biological mother if you consider being a DNA provider a 'mother'. Can you imagine how it will be when she find out we're holding her… wife and kid hostage?"

"That is suicide," she breathed.

"I told you the Red Queen went berserk," Ada knew there was a satisfied smirk on his face even without looking at him. "It'll be an epic show, agent Wong. Epic."

And with that he left the room. Ada buried her face on her hands and then she chanced another glance at her monitor. She really had to keep those two alive if she wanted Alice motivated to destroy Umbrella once and for all.

The Chinese woman typed a few commands on her keyboard and scrolled down the files, her agile eyes scanning the titles on the mainframe. It was a good thing Wesker was never aware of her hacking skills – that was the only way she could find out what he had in store for Alice.

Because she knew why he didn't tell her everything - Wesker knew Ada was planning to turn tables in the end.

**XXX**

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

Angel rolled his eyes, face covered in filthy as half of his body lay under the car. He mopped the sweat from his forehead and stared at the upside down brunette above him.

"That's not the problem," he grunted. "That flashlight won't work, and I just don't have night vision, _querida_!"

"Maybe if you had spared our last batteries instead of playing shadow game," Bennett said, throwing an acid glare at her.

"We were bored," Crystal shrugged, looking at Kim for support. The Asian young man just sighed, slapping the flashlight against the palm of his hand in futile attempt to make it work.

A tall, dark man walked slowly past the group and squatted next to Angel, a look of desperation trying to mare his handsome features.

"Hey," Angel looked up. He already knew what that was about, and it wasn't the car. "About Wendell… It doesn't matter what Bennett says, stat wasn't your fault, man."

"I knew he was sleep deprived and I still had him doing night watch."

"Come on, Luther… None of us could have foreseen a stupid undead-"

"Shut up!" Crystal spat, alerting the whole group.

"Don't tell me to shut up!" Angel protested, pointing the Phillips screwdriver at her.

"No, really," Kim turned to the dark road, frowning at the distant sound that probably caught Crystal's attention. "I think that's-"

"A car engine," Luther whispered, standing up and running to the middle of the empty freeway. The rest of the group stayed put on the roadside, listening intently when he waved his hand for them to keep quiet.

There was indeed a low roar coming from far away, but he could only tell for sure when two yellow lights appeared miles ahead.

"It's a car," he informed quietly. "Someone's coming…"

Cursing inwardly for not having flares anymore, Luther started to jump up and down the pavement, waving his arms to get the vehicle's driver attention. Angel joined him a minute later.

Once the car stood only a few yards from them, both men realized it would not stop and they would get hit. It was approaching too fast and they had to jump sideways to avoid a collision.

"Fuck!" Luther hissed, watching the dark vehicle come to full stop a short distance ahead from their previous spot. "Everybody, stand back," he ordered quietly, one hand on his belt. It was weird that now he was faster with a gun than with a ball in a court.

He was surprised when a woman with short dark hair came out from the driver's side of the car – and that she looked badass was to say the least. She had company, though; a tall man jumped out of the vehicle right after her and stopped at her side. They both held guns, and Luther decided on lowering his guard. He would definitively get shot if he made any wrong move.

"Hey," he held both hands up. "It's cool. We have a flat here, and we need help. I'm-"

"Luther West," the tall man said, pointing his flashlight at Luther's face.

"How is that you know _every _single person left in the world?" the woman snarled at her friend, sounding slightly annoyed.

"He was the Lakers' star! I used to watch TV back in the good old days," he said with a smirk, taking one step forward to shake Luther's hand. "Carlos Olivera. Nice to meet you, man. And we're sorry for almost running over you, but that's the only way to make sure you're not undead."

"That escalated pretty quickly for someone who was whining about not stopping the car," the brunette grunted.

"And this fine and polite lady is my friend, Jill Valentine," Carlos added, holding both of her shoulders strongly. "Come on, Jill. Be nice," he murmured.

Luther offered a hand, staring deeply into her bluish eyes. She shook it just as if she wanted to break his fingers, and the fact that her hand was a lot smaller didn't seem to be a problem to her.

"Luther West, at your services," he said with a grin. She was damn beautiful, and it was hard to push back his flirting attitude, even though his hand hurt a little. He did not even care that she did not recognize him.

"Yeah, whatever," Jill dismissed his courtesy, throwing a general glance at the group. They approached slowly, one by one, and even though they looked miserable and underfed, Jill noticed they were trying to look receptive.

A man with a thin moustache hurried to her with a wolfish grin. "I'm Bennett Sinclair, Hollywood film producer."

"Well, here's one I don't know," Carlos said annoyed, aiming the light at the man's eyes and keeping him from approaching Jill any further. He looked at Luther. "So, what's the story?"

"We came all the way from L.A, but we had to stop because of our tire," the former basketball player explained. "That's Angel Ortiz, our mechanic and occasional sniper. That's Crystal Waters, Kim Yong and well, Bennett."

Carlos noticed Luther did not like Bennett all that much either, and that helped him trust the group's leader.

"Where you're headed?" Jill asked. Her expression was still pretty doubtful.

"Arcadia, of course," Angel said. "We picked transmissions from-"

He and Luther pulled out their guns when there was another door slam and a tall figure got out of the car, startling them.

"Calm down, she's cool," Carlos said firmly, standing between the two men and the newcomer. "This is Alice, and-"

"Enough with introductions," Jill dragged Alice to the circle. The group looked terrified at the blonde's beauty and hostility. "Come on, Alice, it might be from them."

Alice looked at Luther. "What channel?"

"Thirty seven," he answered holding her cold gaze. "The emergency frequency's been under watch for some time now."

"How do you know that?" Carlos asked, joining the women.

"The group that's broadcasting sent an alert some weeks ago. They change channels from time to time, and some days we can't find them. Crystal, if you'd please-"

Alice held her breath when Crystal came back from the useless car with a manual radio. "We recorded some transmissions," she explained, hitting the play button. "That's two days old, and it was the last we heard from them."

Alice's heart jerked to life and then dropped to her stomach when she recognized Chase's voice. He sounded completely off.

"_This is Terra Save, looking for survivors. We offer shelter and food. We're located in Raccoon City, and we're moving up north, to Arcadia. It's in Alaska, and we believe it's free of infection. This is Terra Save, looking for survivors. I repeat, we offer shelter and food-"_

Alice looked at Jill. "It's them?" Jill whispered.

The blonde only nodded, and then she stared around the large group. There was no way they could all fit into Jill's car, and she was not wasting another second because of a stupid tire. Without a word, she walked to the group's vehicle and squatted in front of it, Angel quickly following her.

"I think you'll need light to-"

He cut his speech short when she grabbed the metal rim with both hands and straightened it with a jerk of her wrists. Angel felt his jaw drop as she put the tire back into place with another swift movement.

"_Damn!_" he muttered, staring at her in awe.

"You're welcome," Alice stood up dusting her hands on her jeans and walked back to the road.

"Probably one of you should come to our car," Carlos said. It looked pretty clear they would all travel together from then on.

"I'll go," Crystal offered quickly. She probably didn't want to sit squeezed between all those guys anymore.

Luther walked up to Alice. "Well, I have no idea how you did that, but thank you," he said.

She shrugged slightly. "We should get going."

Angel ignited their car and hit the gas pedal; he made it to the main road, parking right behind the other vehicle. Luther took the passenger seat after Bennett and Kim entered and adjusted themselves comfortably on the back. Carlos patted the hood of the old Ford and moved to the other car.

Alice stood by the front door, blocking his way. "I'm driving now," she said. There was resolve on her face, and he could see it even in the dark.

Jill sat down next to her, which left the back seat to Carlos. He slammed the door and looked at Crystal. They shared a quick smile, but Jill interrupted the friendly exchange when she cleared her throat.

Crystal raised her eyebrows at her.

"I think you might want to fasten your seat belt," Jill said with contempt, and then she turned to Carlos. "Lock your gun, Olivera. We don't want any accidents."

Carlos chuckled. "And why there would be any ac-"

He gasped when his body jerked painfully against the back of Alice's seat once she hit the gas pedal and the car sprinted to life with a violent yank.

"I hope your friend doesn't suck at driving as he sucks at fixing cars," Jill said, smirking at Crystal's look of terror at the speed Alice put the car in.

Alice saw Angel cringing through her rear view mirror. She looked at Jill's smug expression and grinned broadly. It was good to have her friend back.

**XXX**

Chris let out a loud breath and clenched his teeth to keep from saying anything he might regret later. There was the clicking noise again, and he felt an actual grunt of annoyance escape from his pursed lips.

Click. Click. Click.

"Will you just lay off with that?" he snarled, jumping from his seat and startling the whole convoy.

K-Mart looked slightly surprised that it was him the first to break it. She had been locking and unlocking her gun for the past fifteen minutes, not exactly meaning to irritate people. She was tense, and if that resulted on someone getting half as pissed as she was, well, good. She would take it as a bonus.

The blonde girl bit her tongue and put her Uzi back into her belt and left the circle stomping, ignoring all the eyes that were on her. She heard footsteps right behind her, and she turned around angrily before she entered the Hummer. To her utter disbelief, it was Mikey that came following, and not Chris.

"Come on, K-Mart," he muttered, staring into her watery eyes. "I know it's hard-"

"Don't you _dare_ say to me you know how I feel!" she hissed, advancing on his personal space.

It had been quite a while that they were trying to reach Alice, and after sending so many transmissions, every member of the group seemed to be losing hope on ever finding her again. The only thing they got was a woman's distant voice speaking what seemed to be a recorded message that offered Umbrella's products. Since then Chris forbid anyone to use the emergency frequency, and though sometimes it sounded like someone was trying to talk to them, nothing else had happened.

Mikey sighed when she retreated and jumped inside the car, slamming the door to his face. "Look, I know you hate me, okay?" he said quietly. "I know that, and I don't blame you. I've been acting like a fucking jerk, and really… I carry my share of guilty about this whole thing."

"Well, and you should," K-Mart hissed. "If you had kept your big mouth shut that night-"

"I'm not proud of myself, if that's what you wanna hear."

"I don't wanna hear anything from you."

"I know," he sighed again, grasping the grates from the car's window and bending his head down. "But I want you to know that I… I can't believe I'm about to say that…" Mikey looked up and met the teen's gaze in the dark. "I'm disposed to leave and find that… and find Alice."

"What's your point?" K-Mart asked, unable to stand her ground upon hearing that.

"If that's what it takes to have Claire back, K-Mart… I'm going down to hell and back to bring Alice to this convoy."

And with that he left, his lanky pace echoing softly in her ears. She had no idea how that had happened, but suddenly it seemed impossible to hate Mikey to the point of wishing he just dropped dead. The same didn't apply to the next approaching figure, though.

Chris entered the Hummer and took the driver's seat gruffly. Unlike Mikey and worse than the other guys from the group, Chris lacked manners and every kind of tact you could expect from a normal person – it was almost as if he couldn't move without being noticed or heard from miles away.

"What Mikey wanted with you?" he asked.

"It's none of your business," the blonde spat, folding her arms. She was sure she could torture him a lot before she actually cracked the news about a possible search group to seek Alice.

Chris let out a loud breath, tired even. "Look, I'm… sorry I snapped at you like that."

"Whatever," K-Mart mumbled.

He shook his head and turned to look at her. "You're gonna be mad at me for the rest of your life, aren't you?"

"Mad at you? What makes you think you are so important, Chris?" she let out a sarcastic chuckle. "I've got better things to do."

"Oh, I'm sure playing with your gun is a_ lot_ better!"

"Fuck you."

Chris rolled his eyes, holding back a smile. "You grew up too fast, kid."

"Don't you ever call me that again," she hissed, finally meeting his amused gaze. His playful expression under the grime only made her angrier.

He looked away, his lips twitching into a smirk. "Fine," he nodded, holding his hands up. "I take that back."

K-Mart felt her stomach boiling, and she had no idea why his mere presence was annoying her that much. "You can get out of my car, now," she snarled, placing her Uzi on top of the dash and removing her cap.

Chris didn't move, and he kept staring at her as she let her hair fall loose over her shoulders, running her fingers over the messy locks as she attempted to tame the wild blond strands. She took her time and turned to him when she was done, arching her eyebrow at his sudden crankiness.

"You still there?" she asked in a scathing tone. "A girl can't have her privacy anymore around this joint, huh?"

Chris frowned deeply at her acid remark. "Was that ass hitting on you?"

K-Mart almost snapped her neck when she turned startled at him. "_What_?"

"He better not, or I'm gonna shoot him," Chris snarled dangerously with a raised finger at her.

"You can point that away from me," she said boldly. "He came to talk to _me_ and you can stop being so nosy about my life-"

"It _is_ of my business if he's trying to-" Chris seemed to gasp at his own words, and K-Mart could not help a malicious grin.

"God, you are ridiculous," she whispered. With the world falling apart, she could not believe he was worrying about _that_.

"Maybe I am," he said angrily. "But I swear to you I'm keeping my eyes open around that jerk!"

"Oh are you?" she teased. "Why?"

Chris looked at her gritting his teeth. "He's a man and, like it or not, you're just a kid."

K-Mart rolled her eyes; that conversation was moving fast from funny to unpleasant, so she turned to step out of the car instead of giving Chris any reason to continue irritating her. She stopped midway when she felt a hand clasping around her wrist, though. The blonde looked at him with a frown of surprise as she stared at his rude fingers and then at his angry face.

"What do you think you're doing?" she hissed. Startled, Chris let go off of her arm and stared blankly at her, apparently astonished with the way he reacted.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, avoiding her eyes and getting out of the Hummer, looking confused. "Things are getting to my nerves too easily… I'm sorry, K."

She watched him walk away towards the campfire, disbelief still holding her back against the car seat. Chris approached the group and was greeted by Chase with a pat on his back. He threw one last glance at the yellow vehicle, guilty and embarrassment drenching his eyes, then he sat down with his back to her.

K-Mart closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. _Men_, she thought. She liked them, but God, she hated them more sometimes.

**XXX**

"Uh, could you… not smoke in here, please?" Crystal asked politely. It was almost the break of day and everyone was edgy, but she couldn't stand her allergies anymore.

Jill turned around, dragged her cigarette and blew out a thick cloud of smoke on the young woman's face. "Sure," she said with a cute but dangerous smile before she cast it out of the window.

Carlos let out a deep breath as he rolled his eyes. He was a calm person, but that battle of nerves between the two women was taking its tow on him. He saw a pair of green, impatient eyes staring back at him from the rearview mirror, and they held a brief and unspoken agreement.

Alice hit the brake pedal roughly and everyone jerked on their seats, grunting at the sudden jolt. Jill stared angrily at her, brushing strands of black hair away from her face.

"What the fuck was that?"

"Do you want me to throw some mud on the ground so you and Crystal can have your catfight with style?" Alice spat angrier. "Because it seems to me that you have a problem with each other, and I can't stand it anymore! And you," she looked at Carlos before she jumped out of the car. "Do something with your women!"

"Now you've done it!" Crystal said after Alice slammed the door, folding her arms across her chest and staring arrogantly at Jill.

"It's not my fault if you keep bitching about every fucking thing that happens!" Jill yelled at her. "The wind in your hair, the sun in your eyes, the fucking fingernail you just broke! Get a fucking grip on yourself, girl!"

"HEY!" Carlos shouted startling both women. "That's enough! The two of you, shut up now!"

Crystal looked indignantly at him. "But-"

"No 'but'!" he interrupted again. "One of you is changing cars. This is not working!"

The younger brunette cast a death glare at him and a nasty scowl at Jill before she got out of the car too. She slammed the door with strength and walked towards her group, hurrying to Kim to rant about how rude Carlos was.

"Oh, sorry about that," Jill said with a grimace. "Guess I've sent the princess away, didn't I? Why don't you go after her and-"

"You are so fucking irrational when you're jealous, did you know that?"

Jill gaped at him, blinking in surprise. "What?"

Carlos was smiling when he drew near the back of her seat. "I think you heard me just fine."

"I-" she kept moving her lips, too indignant to say anything else. "Fuck you," she whispered, resting her back against the dashboard with her arms folded in defiance.

He let out a low chuckle and shook his head. "That's tempting, but I'm a gentleman, right?"

Her eyes went wide at his comment, and her flushing face gave her away completely.

"Took you long enough to recognize, but thank you anyway," Carlos carried on. "You're a massive pain in the ass, but it's hard to act any other way around you."

"I can't believe you heard that," Jill muttered with a light chuckle, surrendering to a small smile that crisped her lips as she stared out of her window. "Fuck me."

"You keep saying that and I might actually-"

But Carlos was interrupted when soft lips crashed against his. For a second he had no idea what to do; when he closed his eyes and decided to let her lead the way, Jill ended the kiss and retreated against the dashboard again. Her face was even redder than before and her chest was heaving quickly.

She seemed breathless and angrily surprised. "I'll kill you if you tell anyone about that," she hissed and got out of the car as well, leaving a very confused Carlos stuck with racing thoughts behind.

Jill tried to catch her breath as she walked slowly towards Alice. The blonde was pacing furiously a few feet ahead, her hands buried into her hair as her boots crunched noisily the dry grass.

"Alice?" she called in low voice. Her friend stopped her irritated march to stare back at her.

"Are you ladies finished?"

"Sorry," she muttered, staring down at her shoes and then back up at Alice. "Come back to the car, please. I know this is important to you, and I know how you're feeling with all of us holding you back."

The taller woman looked at Jill, an unreadable expression covering her harsh face. She only nodded and accepted the brunette's hand on hers, unable to speak as they walked together towards the vehicle.

The group was gathered in a small circle, drinking water and stretching their legs after the many hours on sitting position. Carlos offered a bottle to Jill, but she declined, avoiding his eyes.

"I'm fine, thank you," she said, waving a hand and moving to the side to light another cigarette.

"Alice?" he asked with a frown, but she shook her head, taking her seat inside the car again. "Alright, let's get going. You coming over, Angel?" The broad man nodded, finishing his drink in one large gulp and then moving to the other vehicle with Carlos. "We're not making stops anymore. Is everybody ready?"

He turned on his heels after the other group muttered their agreement, and hurried to prevent Jill from getting inside the car.

"What?" she asked with a frown.

"You're on the back with me," he said, offering the front seat to Angel, who smirked at the pair and got in next to Alice. Jill rolled her eyes, but Carlos caught her pleased smirk as she moved past him. He held the door open for her and shut it, turning around to get to the other side.

Luther flicked the car's lantern twice and Carlos gave him the thumbs up. He took his seat next to Jill and closed the door, staring deeply at her. She offered him a cold glare, and he merely grabbed her hand.

"I'm not into princesses, you know," he said with a warm smile, and finally some of her defensive hostility faded away, because she turned her lips into a small grin and look away, squeezing his hand in return.

**XXX**

"It's been a week now," Chase said, removing his hat and displaying the full version of his annoyed face. "We're running out of food and people are starting to talk, son. If they start a rebellion against us, I really won't blame them."

Chris shut the radio off in frustration and slumped back to his seat – a ruined car bench he had used as bed and chair for over a month now. He scratched his head and stared up at the group moving around camp. He was the only one that could stand to sit next to the radio these days, and apparently the only one who still hoped to hear something new.

His head snapped to the right as a familiar sound caught his attention. K-Mart was sitting on the Hummer's hood, laughing at something Ernest was telling her. At some point her brown eyes met his blue ones, and her smiling face became slightly off. She looked away after a moment, and Chris sighed.

They had had that weird argument two days ago and it looked like they would never be friends again. Chris knew he had scared her and that he probably had overreacted about everything, but lately he was so damn horrible with words when it came to make amends with K-Mart that it surprised him.

They always got along well, but something had changed over time. It was subtle, very subtle, but it was there, an elephant in the room in the middle of the apocalypse.

He heard Chase leave, cursing something old-fashioned under his breath, and then K-Mart's voice caught his attention again. He stood up quickly when a group appeared by the edge of the rocky incline. They marched slowly and carefully, looking beaten up but hanging in there, and he actually felt his lips crack into a smile when he recognized one of them.

Jill Valentine hadn't changed a bit, and she seemed surprised when she met his gaze. Her smile was somehow shy, and it had his stomach clenching into knots. The tall man next to her had a suspicious frown, though, and Chris stopped midway from waving at her when he noticed it.

And finally out of the newcomers came Alice, face chiseled with purpose, eyes drenched with relief. She caught K-Mart in her arms, burying her face into the girl's long hair.

The convoy gathered behind Chris, watching the group of survivors that stood in front of them. There was tension, curiosity and even a faint trace of animosity, but that didn't even matter anymore. Holding K-Mart was so close to being next to Claire that Alice almost gave in to her grief. But she had to remain strong for that girl's sake.

K-Mart was sobbing on her shoulder, like a small, scared child. She caressed her hair softly, bending slightly to so that the blonde girl could reach her ear.

"You are a stupid, stupid asshole," she cried. "You are so stupid that I feel like shooting you!"

Alice held her tightly, her other hand rubbing the girl's quivering back and shoulder.

"I know, K. I know," she whispered, closing her eyes as she took in the familiar scent of dust from that place.

"Tell me you're bringing her back, Alice," K-Mart said in a small voice.

Alice brought her closer to her, not even caring how clumsy and inappropriate it looked. "I swear to you."


	3. Mothers and Monsters

**A/N: Hello, boys and girls! First of all, my apologies for taking this long to update… Life happens, and well, a lot has happened. But I'm back on track, and hoping you'll enjoy it! Thanks everybody for the messages, reviews, favs and follows, and for hanging in there with me =)**

**3. Mothers and Monsters **

Despite the warmth and the comfort, Claire opened her eyes a bit startled and gasping for air, sitting up straight with the help of her fumbling legs. She was just about to grab the knife on the nightstand, when curious eyes got her attention instead. It was still dark outside, but like her, Becky was fully awake.

"Hey," the redhead whispered with a weak smile, disentangling her feet from the bed sheets as she tried to calm her racing heart. "You don't wanna get some more sleep?" she asked slowly; she had noticed the day before that Becky could read lips.

The blonde girl shook her head, offering a sleepy smile in return. Almost as if following their cue, the sun peeked over the horizon and appeared shyly between the gaps of the window's curtains. Claire squinted at the brittle light; she wasn't a hundred percent sure of the reason, but everything in that place seemed oddly artificial.

On her haste to stay alive and protect Becky, she didn't have time to consider everything that had happened in those few hours' span. In fact, she was avoiding most of the things that had happened since she woke up in that bed for the first time. However, it was no news to Claire that she was having trouble conciliating her brain with her heart; it would be impossible to find an answer without reviving all the pain she had been put through the day before, and she really could not cope with that just yet.

"Mommy forgot my cereal there," Becky said in her raspy voice, pointing randomly out of the window. Claire stared deeply into her eyes, finding the younger version of a face she would never see again. She swallowed hard, trying to squeeze her lips into a smile as she nodded her head.

"Yeah, she did, but…" her voice trailed off as she saw the cappuccino's stain on the carpet. "I bet there's a lot of good stuff left down in the kitchen. Do you wanna check it out?"

Becky grinned. "Yes!" She jumped off bed and ran to the door, ready to jig down the stairs, when Claire's hand around her arm stopped her. Her touch was gentle but still it startled the girl.

"Remember-" Claire sighed and shook her head. Her heart was crushing her chest with the sudden rush of adrenaline, and she deliberately got down on her knees to take away that look from Becky's face. "You need to wait for me, okay? _Never_," she took a deep breath "leave the rooms or the house without me. There are-" Claire looked up, scavenging her brain for a good word to describe an undead without traumatizing the girl. "There are weird people out there sometimes, and I'd like you to walk around me so I can take care of you."

Becky watched Claire carefully. She reached out and her small hand ran through Claire's messy red hair. "Because you are my mom now."

"Yes, yes, because I _am_ your mom," the leader grinned, and tears burned the corner of her eyes. "And that's a mom's job, you know. To – To take care of their kids. And make sure they eat breakfast," she added with a real smile. "You hungry?" Becky nodded enthusiastically. "Good, so… just wait here. Stay away from the door, a little. I'll just put on my boots and then we can go eat."

Becky waited obediently for Claire, who kept an eye on her just in case. She booted her cold feet and sneaked the knife inside it, letting the sharp blade rest between the leather fabric and her skin. When she got to the door, she held out a hand for Becky and popped her head out of the bedroom. The house's interior was illuminated just partially. All the boards she had nailed across the windows to barricade the house were now barricading the sun, but Claire took it as a sign that no one tried to break into their headquarter during the night.

They went downstairs slowly, the redhead watching every corner of the place with hostile attention, ready to strike, fight and even kill. Claire never thought she'd feel so protective around anyone after K-Mart, and now Becky was proving her wrong and sealing her fate.

Even though they were on a supplied kitchen, Claire improvised breakfast pretty much the same way she did while setting camp all over the place with the convoy. If that was life with comfort and shelter, God, she missed travelling pointlessly and sleeping with a rifle on her hands.

She wasn't hungry at all, so she only watched Becky feast on the modest meal she had prepared. Claire took mental inventory of the food they still had, and she groaned internally upon admitting she soon would need to get out of the house to find more provisions.

Becky softly dropped her fork and slipped off the stool; she walked towards the TV on the opposite counter and turned it on. She easily found the cartoon channel and went back to her seat. Claire kept watching her, determined to maintain normalcy in their lives as much as possible, when she heard a harsh crack coming from the front door.

Becky was too engaged to notice the disturbance, but Claire's fingers were already slipping into the ankle of her boot to get the knife. She rounded the counter and stopped in front of the girl, who tilted her head to the left with the intention of continuing watching the cartoon.

"Sweetie, you have to come with me now," the redhead said as softly and calmly as she could. Claire didn't want to alarm her, but she could not have her distracted with Tom and Jerry if there was a single undead outside the house.

Becky once again surprised the leader with her loyalty by offering her small hand to her mother. Claire led her upstairs and they both entered the bedroom again, stopping right in front of the closet holding hands.

"It's just like a game, okay? Sometimes we'll need to get in there, and whenever I tell you to hide, you'll run up here and stay quietly behind those doors. Do you understand me, Becky?"

The girl only nodded in agreement, allowing Claire to guide her in. The redhead had her squatting down and adjusting her small form inside her shoe shelf. She literally kicked some boots and sneakers to the side so Becky could sit more comfortably in there. She looked around and found the light switch; once the room was illuminated, her eyes fell instantly over the military coat with the name Abernathy sewn to it.

Claire swallowed the lump in her throat and picked it up, slipping her arms inside the long sleeves. It was a bit large to her frame, especially in length and shoulder breadth, but she really didn't care; it felt good against her skin, so she would just keep it.

With Alice being Alice, she had half expected to find a gun hidden somewhere inside the closet, but for once the blonde had let her down – there were only clothes in there. Once again Claire got caught up in that set of lies – why had she expected to find a gun if they did not even live there? She squatted down next to Becky and tried to hand sign as she spoke. "Are you cold?" Claire clad the girl with a jacket after her short nod, and then they both remained silent.

There was no more noise since the one that first startled Claire. She gestured for Becky to stay put while she checked the house. Years with the convoy had taught her never to trust the feeling of safety.

Claire shook her head. She closed her eyes and sighed, shutting the wooden doors quietly behind her after reassuring Becky one more time that she would be back soon.

She walked around the place on tip toe. Everything seemed oddly quiet, too peaceful to be true. Claire reinforced her grip around the knife handle and gasped loudly when she caught bloody footprints on the living room. She only had time to turn around; there was an undead gnarling in front of her, its blue sweater covered in gore and its face hidden behind tentacles. The creature's rotten breath filled in the space between them and he attacked.

**XXX**

Alice adjusted herself on her sitting position, and the sharp surface of the tree gashed her back really bad this time. She was not trying to get comfortable because that was nearly impossible, but she wanted to offer a decent resting spot for K-Mart. The teen had fallen asleep against her, and Alice didn't want her disturbed by other people's noises. That lonely tree had been the best place she found to talk to the blonde girl alone, and now that she had finally drifted off, Alice had hoped she would be able to avoid the curious eyes that followed her everywhere.

She knew she would have to come around it soon; Claire's convoy had waited for her, and Alice knew better than anyone she owned them some answers. When the eventual noise of feet crushing the dry grass entered her ears, she thought her peace had been really short lived, but then she caught the weight of the steps and realized who was it.

"She seems really fond of you," Jill said, sitting down next to the two blondes, watching them carefully. The brunette ran her eyes over Alice's arms enclosing the girl into a protective circle. The tall woman had surprised her with that hug back in the facility, but it was still new to her seeing Alice act like someone's body guard. "And you seem to reciprocate it."

"Claire and I rescued her from that laboratory in Nevada," the blonde responded quietly, staring down at the girl in her arms. "She was a lot smaller when I literally carried her for the first time."

Jill let out a chuckle. "You talk just as if you –" She stopped smiling when she caught the look on Alice's face. Jill understood immediately what her friend felt. It was the same thing she once had with Angie. "It's like you could defeat the world just to keep her safe, isn't it?"

Alice sighed deeply and remained silent. She met Jill's gaze, finding a lot of pain inside her grayish eyes. _Angie_.

"Back then I had no idea, Jill," she whispered. For the first time she felt like she needed to voice her guilt, and instead of relief, it only seemed to hurt her even more. "I thought I was doing you a favor. I thought I was doing you both a favor."

Jill hung her head and shook it. When she looked up again, her eyes were slightly moist and red, but she was smiling.

"You gave her a few more days, Alice," she whispered back. "And I never thanked you for that." The brunette stood up and dusted the back of her pants. "I think we might be ready to hit the road soon. I'm having everyone packing their stuff."

Alice offered her a faint grin in appreciation and turned her gaze back to K-Mart as Jill walked away from them. Her heart clenched with the perspective of being on her friend's shoes some years ago. Alice knew the monster in her would kill anyone who tried to harm K-Mart, but she had no idea how she would cope if anyone actually took the teen away from her.

With Claire gone and the impossibility of knowing if she would ever see the redhead again, K-Mart was the only thing Alice had left, and actually having someone was a lot more frightening than having no one at all.

**XXX**

"You know a lot of people from the apocalypse too," Carlos said as Jill approached him. He was leaning against the yellow Hummer and had his arms folded across his chest, but his tone was amicable as usual.

"Chris was my partner in the field for a while. We trained together here in Raccoon City, but then we were sent to different unities," she explained as she sat down on the car's hood, hiding all the distress she was feeling. Jill watched the movement and it felt like she was watching some kind of long rehearsed choreography. Everyone moved in tune, synchronized, and they probably didn't even know it. Anyway, their former leader had done a great job. "He used to be nicer," she added, eying a very grouchy Chris pacing up and down near the extinguished fire.

"You can't blame the guy," Carlos said, watching the broad man's furious march too. "It's his sister being held hostage by Umbrella. I'd feel the same way if someone I care about was captured."

Jill felt his gaze burn her skin, and that was another good reason to avoid his piercing dark eyes. Carlos brought up in her a lot of emotions she was not willing to deal with for the time being, and Jill really felt great without much to worry about other than the trip to Alaska – because it was obvious it would be her assuming Claire Redfield's role until they finally found her – if they ever did.

"Well, I gotta get everyone ready," she said, slipping off the Hummer and waving briefly at Carlos. "Have Angel helping you, I need you to check if every vehicle is up and running okay to make it to Arcadia."

Jill heard him grunt his agreement and she actually felt his eye roll. That was the sort of thing about Carlos that annoyed her; just because she had kissed him, it didn't mean he had the right to figure her out that well. Shaking off these thoughts, the brunette walked up to Chris. He stopped his pacing when he noticed it was her; it looked like he was even trying to smile.

"Is your people ready to leave?" she asked carefully. "I can't have Alice waiting one more day in this shitty place."

Chris nodded, eying her carefully, not exactly understanding her grudge against the Arklay Mountains. Truth was Jill had never set foot in there after she left Alice for the first time, and just looking at the mansion where Angie had died sent shivers down her spine.

"Alice just seems to have a power over people," the older Redfield commented slowly, watching the distant figures of the blonde and K-Mart. "My sister trusted her with her life… And so do you, it seems."

"Is that a bad thing?" Jill asked with a smirk.

"No," he shook his head, smiling too. "It's just… You and Claire are like female alphas, you know. It's weird seeing you so ready to comply to Alice almost… blindly."

Jill shook her head, fetching a cigarette and lighting it. She took a long drag and stared at Chris. "We don't have time for egos now. Besides," she let out a thick cloud of smoke "it's not like she's telling me what to do."

"Again, no," he positively grinned now. "But you sort of… _flow_ with her. Just… don't flow too much. Claire hates competition."

Jill frowned. "What the fuck are you talking about? I don't wanna take over as leader, she can have it back the minute we find her!" she scoffed.

Chris ignored her question and merely offered a wink in response; it amused him that she had no clue of what he really meant, and yet he didn't truly believe Jill would be into _that_ – but well, he had been very wrong about Claire too... His expression grew slightly darker when he looked aside. "Speaking of competition…"

The brunette followed his gaze and saw Carlos walking around camp, checking under the cars' hoods with Angel like she had requested.

"What's the thing with this guy? He acts weird around you."

"Carlos is weird," Jill smiled fondly at the black haired man, who moved unaware of her watch. "But he's a good guy."

"Never thought I'd see the day Jill Valentine became a softie."

She let out a loud breath that ended in a chuckle, ignoring his smug expression as much as she could. Chris Redfield, like Carlos, had this amazing power of getting to her nerves.

"Don't make me hurt you," she warned him with an eyebrow raised. "It would be really humiliating having your ass kicked by a girl, wouldn't it?"

Chris laughed – the first time he laughed in days – and he took one step closer to his friend. She looked and acted exactly the way he remembered, except for a few particularities. The Jill in his memory was slightly harsher, more of an excellent leader than a person that got too attached to others. She would be fighting for dominance right now, trying to beat the crap out of Alice even though she knew Alice was out of her league.

He remembered a bit more of yelling and cursing, but he didn't know that years around an eight years old girl had somehow tamed Jill's tongue. It was expected the little girl would turn out a dirty mouth, but it had been the other way around.

"So what's the plan?" he asked.

"Alice said you'd probably have a route traced with you. Something she left before going away. Well, good," Jill added after Chris nodded. "It's simple, then. We just have to pack and go. It's a three week trip without any backsets, but you never know."

"You got it," he shoved his hands into his pockets, watching around camp for a minute. There was a deep frown on his forehead when he turned back to the brunette. "Jill… I know Alice knows something I don't, and I know you'll let her do the talking about it, but… This is my sister we're talking about. Just tell me… What are we up against and will I ever see Claire again?"

Jill felt her lips fall and for a moment she could not stare back into his blue eyes. She took another long drag from her cigarette, trying to gain some time. "I don't know exactly what's waiting for us in Russia, but when there's Umbrella in it, you can always expect trouble."

"_Russia_," he repeated, a note of disbelief and shock in his voice.

"Claire was taken to a facility there. According to 'intel'-" Jill made quotation marks with her hands to refer to Ada's instructions "- she's still alive, but not for long if we don't move fast."

"I didn't ask what intel said," he took another step, invading her personal space this time. "I wanna know your opinion. Your _honest_ opinion. You know Umbrella better than anyone in this camp."

Jill sighed. Of course she knew. She had been suspended from S.T.A.R.S because of them – because she found out what they did before the outbreak.

She refrained from mulling on that subject again – whenever the unfair punishment popped to her mind, Jill felt irrationally angry. "I don't even know if we're gonna make it to Alaska, Chris," she said more sternly than she intended to. Chris withdrew from her, staring down at his shoes as he shook his head in acknowledgement. "But it doesn't mean we're not gonna try," she added in a softer tone. "We have Alice at our side. Isn't it good enough?"

He looked up at Jill. "It has to be."

"Let's gather these people, then. You can brief your group, mine has already caught up with the whole thing. Let me know when you're ready. If you need any space for food or other supplies, our trunks have plenty."

He watched Jill turn around and walk away towards Alice, so he decided to do the only thing he had left to do – boost orders like a true Redfield. Chase, Rick, Lucinda and Mikey were in charge of provisions, and they went back and forth the mansion, riffling it one last time.

The others were collecting sleeping bags and kitchen utensils, gathering the kids near the vehicles and checking last minute details. The convoy had been ready to leave since the morning Claire disappeared, and right now it was only a matter of finishing what they had already started.

He watched the group moving as he walked past them. Chris looked at the yellow Hummer, wondering if anyone would dare touching it in Claire's absence or try to be K-Mart's new companion. The thought made him instantly go to edgy mode, but then he remembered Alice was there to guarantee his sister's belongings remained in place. Not to mention that K-Mart would be perfectly protected with Alice by her side, and that soothed him deeply.

Relaxing a little, Chris went to help Ernest pack their weaponry. Mikey was across from him sealing the last sacks of canned food inside the cargo area of the truck. They eyed each other with some reserve and went back to their tasks. Jill was right – the clock was ticking for Claire, and there was no time for egos.

**XXX**

K-Mart grunted when someone shook her. She recognized Alice just by the strong pressure against her skin. _Damn, could she ever be gentle?_ K-Mart squinted before she even managed to open her eyes, and when she did, green orbs stared down carefully at her, and then she realized _where_ she was.

"I'm sorry," the girl muttered a little awkward, sitting up and withdrawing slightly from Alice, suddenly missing the warmth and comfort. "Didn't mean to fall asleep on you."

"You looked like you could use some rest," the blonde shrugged, offering a soft smile. Almost immediately something else caught her attention. "Guess that's our cue to leave."

K-Mart followed Alice's gaze and her eyes fell upon the brunette that had arrived with the group. As she walked towards them, K-Mart noticed the woman had sharp eyes and an arrogant air about herself that she didn't like much.

"This is Jill," Alice said, standing on her feet when the woman stopped next to them. "Old friend of mine."

"I'd be careful with that _old_," Jill arched an eyebrow at Alice and then looked at the younger woman with an unreadable expression on her face. "You must be K-Mart." They shook hands, the blonde eying the brunette with suspicion. "I heard a bit about you."

K-Mart frowned, her damn curiosity always getting on her way when she wanted to stand her ground with people she didn't like. "A bit?"

"You know how talkative our friend here is," Jill tilted her head to point Alice and offered a sly smile. K-Mart let out a small chuckle and caught the blonde rolling her eyes at them.

"Yeah, well, I hope you'll change your mind about me then," the girl said, unable to help it.

"You really shouldn't," Jill scoffed playfully. "Superwoman's crazy about you, kid."

K-Mart sighed in frustration, trying to ignore the part of her that melted with that piece of information. "I'm seventeen," she snarled.

"Skipped a birthday, have you?" Alice inquired with a smirk.

"I know how old I am!" she protested as both women stared at her with equal smiles. She had no idea why she suddenly felt so edgy around them. "God, just stop _ogling_ me like that, it's fucking creepy!"

"Think I'm gonna like this girl," Jill commented as both she and Alice watched the young blonde walk away. "Free style vocabulary and attitude."

"Guess she's been just lonely," Alice said with a slight frown. "She used to be very sweet."

"Well, now that she has you," Jill commented matter-of-factly "she'll probably become bitter and angry."

"That's how you see me?" Alice asked as they walked together back to camp.

The brunette caught the playful tone in her voice and grinned without looking at her. "Sorry to burst your bubble about that, but you're fucking unpleasant," Jill said.

Alice chuckled, shoving her hands into her pockets. The convoy was at full speed when they arrived at the center of the movement, and the area looked mostly naked and dusty with all the cars parked and only footprints left on the ground. Everyone seemed to be waiting for her.

Alice placed her hat on her head carefully and took a deep breath. "I guess you all know by now what the plan is," she started slowly, mostly looking at Chris and Jill. The brunette had settled between him and Carlos, and the combination seemed far worse than Carlos, Jill and Crystal.

"We're going for a very long trip this time," she went on. "Three weeks, if nothing goes wrong. We're gonna do our best to avoid stops, because none of us knows what the roads to Alaska are like these days. Once we settle in Arcadia, I'll have us split in two groups – one that will stay with the kids and in charge of sweeping the area to make it livable, and another that will come with me to…" her voice trailed off as she felt the weight of their stares falling above her. She just couldn't talk about Claire in front of everyone. "We're accommodating using the least vehicles as possible. Every car must contain at least one armed person, two adept drivers, one radio and a set of flares. In case of trouble, don't forget to use transmissions as primal way of communication, light and shooting might attract more problems. I'm taking point and Chris gets the rear. Maintain the windows rolled up and constant speed. For the drivers, change with your partner at the slight sign of weariness, we don't want any accidents. I want all the kids together in the cargo area of the truck – it's safer and they'll have more space to sleep. The trunk will be the last car in line, in front of Chris's vehicle. Understood?"

There was general murmur around camp, but everyone seemed satisfied with the preciseness of the instructions. Alice felt much more like the former military leader she used to be than the usual wanderer she had become. She was resolved to keep everyone that was important to Claire safe, and she was determined to give blood and sweat to have all of them getting to Arcadia.

The convoy's formation would have a total of five cars, twenty one adults and seven children. If Alice could choose, she would drive alone with K-Mart, or at most share the vehicle with Jill and Carlos, but they had to split up because of their skills, and this way she ended up in charge of riding with Crystal and Luther - not to mention that she had already picked a small battle of nerves around Jill.

"You're coming with me?" Carlos asked Jill.

"She can ride with me, but thanks, buddy," Chris said to him, offering a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"I'm driving _my_ car," Jill scoffed. "See you both in Arcadia, boys." She waved and entered her old machine, inviting Angel and randomly picking Rick and Ernie to join them.

Carlos and Chris glared at each other for a second then parted ways to lead their own groups, both looking grumpy and shaking their heads as they walked away. Alice sighed and then moved towards the Hummer. K-Mart was already there, feet resting on the dashboard, watching her fingernails with little interest.

The blonde jumped in, adjusting the driver's seat to fit her legs. Claire always complained about that, because she changed it and never put it back to the original place. Luther and Crystal climbed onboard moments later.

"Nice ride," he commented, studying the interior of the vehicle as he settled on the back with the young brunette.

"Your friend's car will not be able to catch up with this on the road," Crystal said to Alice, referring to Jill's old Chevrolet. She then came forwards and stretched a hand to K-Mart. "I don't think we were introduced. I'm Crystal."

"Luther West," the former basketball player followed her cue and offered his hand too after K-Mart shook hers. He seemed slightly disappointed that the teen wasn't fangirling about his famous name; she merely shook his hand too, and then turned back to the front.

"You ready?" Alice asked them. After hearing Luther's and Crystal's agreement, she turned to K-Mart. "Are you?"

"Why are you so worried about me, Alice?" she asked, sounding a bit annoyed. She seemed to be in full teenager mode again.

Alice decided to use good old psychology instead of silent treatment. "Because you're second in charge to drive the Hummer. You're my partner."

K-Mart looked at her with avid eyes. "Am I?"

"Of course you are," she said nodding, igniting the car. The low roar of the engine brought back a lot of memories – more than she had expected – and for a moment she hesitated before hitting the gas pedal. Four different motors were ignited right after her cue, and that was what brought her back to her senses. "I trust you like… she does."

She felt the young woman's stare in her direction, but Alice could not look back. She had a serious problem when it came to dealing with her feelings, but too many bad things had already happened in her life after she chose not to voice them. Her family never heard a last word from her, she never thanked Rain for saving her life, Angie never knew how much it hurt to give her peace, she almost lost her chance to apologize to Jill, and Claire… Well, Claire didn't know a thing.

Alice was not doing it wrong with K-Mart. The girl deserved to know just how much she meant to her. She felt K-Mart's smaller hand holding hers for a brief moment, and Alice grasped the steering wheel a little stronger. She took a deep breath and accelerated.

She swerved the car gently, directing it to the incline. There was a lot of dust in the air when the others followed and made the same curve she did. Slowly, they went down the mountain track; the descent took them about five minutes, and then, after months, the convoy was back on the road.

Alice honked and waited for four more honks. When their sound entered her ears, she hit the gas pedal and kept her angry eyes on the asphalt trail. Those miles were just a challenge. They would _not_ keep her from finding the leader.

Because she loved Claire, and Claire deserved to know it.

**XXX**

Claire flinched before opening her eyes. Her arm was painfully stretched, and the blade of her knife had disappeared inside the undead's mouth. His tentacles were hanging lifelessly from his jaw, and dark blood dripped from it to the chest of his sweater, adding a bit more to the gore.

She pulled it back with a blunt movement – the noise that accompanied it was disgusting – and he fell heavily on the floor without the support. She dropped the knife and noticed her hand was shaking as her heart thumped her chest violently. She heard another creak against the wooden floor, and she turned swiftly towards the direction of the noise.

Becky was on top of the stairs, looking terrified at her and the dead creature on their living room. Claire climbed towards the child quicker than she gave her legs credit for.

"What did I tell you about staying hidden?" she asked breathlessly, kneeling down to hug Becky and try to block the sight she was having from the monster downstairs. "Jesus… You scared me…"

"I'm sorry, mom," she whispered with a shy gesture, tears dangling from her green eyes. Claire kicked herself internally and pulled the girl for a stronger embrace. She couldn't really blame her for her curiosity, could she?

"It's okay, come on," she stood up and lead the way to the bedroom. "Just wait a second and I'll be right back."

She wanted to check the house for more intruders, but she was sure she would know by now if more of them had managed to trespass the barriers. Claire went downstairs as fast as she could to retrieve her knife and sterilize it. It was in that moment she saw an unattended window in the back of the room. It was wide open, completely forgotten. The recently ripped curtains were stained with blood and had pooled underneath the window.

Claire stared hesitantly at the undead. She approached him carefully and swatted slightly to grab him around the ankles. With all the strength she possessed, the younger Redfield pulled him, dragging his dead weight towards the back door in the kitchen. Claire dropped his legs unceremoniously once she got there; she removed the boards she had nailed the day before and watched the back yard carefully.

With the exception of trash and obvious signs that a desperate run took place in the neighborhood – squashed flowerbeds, destroyed fences and chunks of grass missing from the lawn – there was no apparent disturbance.

She opened it carefully and then dragged what used to be a human being outside. His body flopped down the stair steps and rolled ungraciously on the ground. Claire studied his deformed face; she had never killed one of them from that short distance. Once she had been spared because of a wired fence in Nevada, but usually she would just shoot them with her rifle. Swinging knifes into their rotten mouths like it was some kind of amusement sounded like something Alice would do.

And before the thought of Alice could make her start hurting, loud and raspy gnarls caught Claire's attention. Three more of those creatures with tentacles approached her backyard at considerable speed. She retreated with one quick movement, her hands cooperating with her as they firmly sealed the passage again. Claire closed her eyes and sighed deeply, resting her back against the door.

The undead outside slammed it, but she hoped they would not manage to break through. Realization fell upon her when they stopped trying to open the door and slumbered outside, snapping their tentacles.

"_Fuck_!" Claire breathed. She propped herself to a run towards the living room and she got there in time to catch the first one climbing the window, half of his body already inside the house, his scabbed hands trying to grasp the wooden boards on the floor for support.

She rammed his fingers angrily, but he did not seem to register any pain on that. Gasping for air, Claire did the only thing she had not tried yet; she flexed her right knee and stretched her leg into a kick – it hit him full on the face, and he fell backwards growling. As the second one tried to climb as well, Claire was already pushing a heavy cabinet towards the window, blocking the access.

The redhead held her breath as long minutes passed. She heard them circling the house, their raspy breaths an excellent give away in a moment like that. Their heavy steps also helped her to be sure there were no more than three trying to get in. After what seemed like an eternity, it finally looked like they gave up.

Claire breathed loudly in relief and ran up the stairs, seeking Becky in her bedroom. The little girl looked scared as hell, but the sight of her mother seemed to sooth her almost completely.

"Are they gone?" she asked in a terrified whisper.

"Yes, honey," Claire ran her fingers through the girl's blonde hair. "They're gone."

The redhead helped Becky accommodate in the living room. She took blankets and pillows to the couch, where her little girl sat comfortably. Claire turned on the TV and found the cartoon channel for her, hoping that the low volume wouldn't be much of a new problem to the girl.

Becky seemed content enough, and Claire decided it was time to make her perimeter. She hated the feeling of Becky and her being prisoners there; the years with the convoy gave her a sense of freedom that had rooted itself in her body, and now it was fucking difficult to pace around a confined space without knowing what was going on outside.

After checking every window and every door, Claire heated her knife's blade on the stove to sterilize it, cooled it with the water from the sink and shoved it back into the ankle of her boot. She moved to the living room, and as she stared at Becky, she received a silent invitation to watch Wile E. Coyote falling from another cliff. Claire smiled at the girl and sat down next to her on the couch.

Claire and Becky leaned against each other, so naturally that it was like they did that every day. The redhead glanced out of the window, eyeing the sun, and then she caught herself wondering what K-Mart had looked like when she was a little girl. Claire had been so worried about protecting the house that for a terrible moment she completely forgot about her adoptive sister.

Suddenly it felt like something was crushing her heart inside her chest, hammering it, stepping on it mercilessly. Claire had developed defense mechanisms during the apocalypse, and one of them was to never get too attached to people. She had watched many friends die through the years, but every time it happened it seemed easier.

It was like a small voice in the back of her head saying, _Well, that's not completely unexpected_.

Other than her brother, never someone meant so much to her to the point of causing her physical pain in their absence. Alice had lowered her walls and K-Mart had jumped on the bandwagon. And now Claire was alone with a child to take care of.

It was just the two of them, and Claire would have to leave the house sooner or later. The supermarket was her best shot – there was food and there was weaponry. She was not thrilled with the perspective of reviving her worst nightmare, but one look at Becky made her choice a lot easier.

Claire was not giving up on their daughter.


	4. Battle Front Arcadia

**A/N: Thank you all SO much for hanging in there. I apologize for the stupid delay to update, but I am back on the ship, now! Welcome aboard if you are a new reader, and welcome back if you've been keeping track of things for quite a while. You already know the drill – thank you all for the reviews, follows and favs. You guys rock! (followthatconvoy)**

**4. Battle Front Arcadia**

Once he stopped the car brusquely, Carlos looked at the radio hooked to the dashboard. He didn't have to wait long to hear Jill's voice sizzling from it.

"_You hit the break last minute like this again and I'll kick your ass, Olivera._"

He smirked, lowering the lights and spotting Jill's head behind the steering wheel in the vehicle ahead. She had come to a full stop without warning, and he almost crashed against her precious shabby Chevrolet.

Through the radio, Carlos heard the others complaining as well, and not too far he picked the tired breaks of the truck puffing loudly to avoid collision. For a millisecond it felt like the entire group held their breaths to wait for it.

"Why did we stop anyway?" he asked, trying to get a better look at the convoy's point.

"_What about heads up when someone is about to stop?"_ asked Chris's annoyed voice. "_Jill, what is she doing?_"

"_Damn..._" Chase grunted.

Carlos touched the door lock after checking he had his pistol on him, when Jill's voice rang in his ears, sounding slightly alarmed.

"_Alice, what the fuck are you doing?_"

"_Everybody stay in your vehicle,_" the blonde finally spoke. Her commanding tone seemed devoid of emotion but laced with dangerous intent.

Jill's next sentence was a mere sigh, a barely audible "_Fuck me"_, and Carlos wished he could get out of the car to join her. Instead, he looked at Mikey, Kim and Janet. Very unlike Jill, he did not have trusting issues.

"You heard the woman," he muttered. "Keep your doors locked."

Carlos and everyone else riding with them was trying to take a look at what was going on up ahead, but Jill and her companions were the only ones able to fully appreciate the show.

_We are _so_ screwed, _Jill thought, exchanging a dark glance with Angel. His lips twitched and he furrowed his brows deeply.

"I hope your friend knows what she's doing," he muttered, his dark brown eyes surveying the biggest horde of undead he had seen in years.

Jill sighed deeply as she considered calling Alice out over the radio. It was in her minute's hesitation that Alice made her move; when the brunette looked up, Alice was already jumping out of the Hummer, no weapons in hand and a vicious look on her face.

**XXX**

She heard Luther and Crystal gasping on the back seat of the car, but it was K-Mart's look of terror that got to her nerves. Her protective instincts jerked to life in a second, heating up her blood and tensing her muscles so much that she actually felt pain.

_Hell_ she was angry.

Alice turned back and saw Luther fumbling with his gun. He seemed conflicted, like he didn't know whether to keep safely locked inside the car or impress the three women riding with him.

"Ignite a flare and throw it past the horde," Alice told him harshly. "And don't even think about it," she added, cocking her head sideways to indicate his hand on the gun.

"You're not telling me you're going to handle them by yourself," Luther snorted, torn between amusement and disbelief.

"Get the flare and just do as I said," Alice hissed, not in the mood for that kind of conversation. Did that guy ever shut up? She was sure K-Mart or Crystal would have obliged by now, but Luther was the only one with strength enough besides herself to send the flare that far.

He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he held his tongue once the other groups started to complain over the radio.

"_Alice, what the fuck are you doing?_" Jill asked.

"Everybody stay in your vehicle,_" _Alice said coldly, nodding her head as Luther grabbed one of the flares from the Hummer's trunk. She looked at K-Mart; the teen's brown eyes were glossy, drenched in fear like Alice had never seen before.

She wanted to tell something to her, reassure her that she would handle it, but so many times before she had made promises and broken them. Just for starters it was her fault K-Mart didn't have Claire next to her right now. Alice merely stared at her, just as if it was the last time they would ever lay eyes on each other.

"Do _not_ leave the car," Alice snarled as she jumped out of the Hummer. She didn't intend to sound so aggressive, but the adrenaline and the t-virus combined were like a bomb of rage in her system.

The midnight air was cold against her skin. Not only she knew they were getting closer to the north as she realized it was the first time in many years that she actually felt her skin shivering with the wind. It instantly reminded her of Claire, so human, so strong but so frail, in the hands of Umbrella…

"Luther, now!" she yelled.

Alice watched her surroundings as the undead kept a close circle, moving in formation with the intention of incarcerating them. With a glimpse, she caught Jill behind the Chevrolet's steering wheel. Somehow she knew her friend was about to jump and run after her, and she could not let that happen.

The flare reached its highest mark in the dark sky, and suddenly vivid green light cascaded down like fireworks. The temporary illumination allowed her to look at Jill in the eye. She simply shook her head – _No, that applies to you as well _– and turned around.

Growling, Alice sprinted towards the undead, with the advantage that the light distracted most of them. She ran and came to a halt a few feet from them; a flash of red flickered in her eyes and her resolve was made.

The psionic blast cut through the air and ripped the limping bodies apart like an invisible slicing machine. No longer than a few seconds the asphalt started to crash as well, and Alice had to focus harder to prevent it from happening; the road was the only piece of decent pavement, and she could not destroy it. That would delay their journey even more, and she could not afford taking much longer to go after Claire.

The thought of the redhead was the key. Alice could see the waves she emanated, even though she was sure no one else was able to actually visualize them. With one simple command, the blonde managed to guide and direct them towards the undead, finishing all of them within a minute. It was the cleanest onslaught she had ever seen.

Her blood was rushing past her veins, but it no longer tingled with the unwanted presence of the walking corpses. She took a step towards the Hummer, and her feet failed her. Alice stumbled to her knees as oxygen fought its painful way towards her brain and darkness tried to engulf her.

The blonde groaned when she heard car doors and hurrying steps. What did she just say about them fucking staying in the fucking cars?

Jill and Luther lifted her from the ground, their voices sounding like distant echoes. She wanted to scream at them to leave her alone – God only knew if the psionic blasts were back in her control – but somehow a voice brought her back to her human senses.

The sizzling subdued and only the pain in her head remained as K-Mart ordered the pair to put Alice on the front seat of the Hummer. K-Mart was fine, and Alice almost smiled at the thought. She felt the warm leather fabric underneath her back and legs and took a deep breath of relief. With her eyes narrowed, she noticed she wasn't behind the steering wheel, and that K-Mart had taken over her place.

After a minute, Luther was back on his seat next to Crystal, and Jill had returned to her car. She felt K-Mart's small hand on hers. The teen gave her long fingers a soft squeeze and then let go. Alice heard the car humming back to life as K ignited it, and soon they were moving past the dead horde.

"Is everybody alright?" K-Mart asked, and four different voices rang on the radio to give her their positive replies. "Good. We completed two-thirds of the trip, and we are going through the final miles to Arcadia now. Keep doors locked and windows rolled up. Be safe."

Alice felt an involuntary smile tug at her lips despite the fact that she was absolutely worn out even for that. "Spoken like a true leader," she whispered hoarsely. "Good job, partner…"

She felt K-Mart's smile towards her. She picked Claire's duffel bag from underneath the seat and held it close to her body, finally giving in to sleep.

**XXX**

Claire removed the last board from the front door and threw it aside, puffing slightly with the effort. She opened an inch of it and peeked outside. There were no signs of anything lethal for blocks, so she turned around and stretched a hand to Becky. The little girl took a step forward and clasped her small hand around Claire's – their long agreed, silent choreography.

As far as she managed to keep track of time, they had been locked up for about two weeks; nothing else had really happened, but now they were officially out of supplies. Claire pulled Becky towards the Prius and fastened the seatbelt around the little girl's waist carefully. She offered a wink and a reassuring smile before closing the door even though she did not feel reassured herself.

The redhead sat behind the steering wheel and ran her fingers absently minded over the needlework on the left side of the jacket. Abernathy. They were Redfield-Abernathy girls now, and she would brace herself and act like one. She was getting food for her daughter and she was going to kick some serious asses if any stupid undead stood on her way.

The ride to the K-Mart store didn't take long. Her years as a leader had given her the ability to memorize routes with perfect ease. No longer able to count on maps or GPS devices, Claire always paid attention to reference points and turns, even when she was not the one driving.

The make-believe Raccoon City had no traffic or inhabitants, and she felt free to drive at high speed and even wander in the contraflow lane whenever she pleased. They were at the parking lot in less than ten minutes, and Claire felt a chill run down her spine as she took in the place where she lost Alice and K-Mart in one hit.

There were a few cars and debris from the attack, but still no signs of undead or Umbrella soldiers. Claire parked a few feet from the glass doors of the store and rolled up the windows, leaving only small slits between the metal arch and the glass.

"Pay close attention to me, baby," she whispered, bending over so that Becky and her were eye leveled. "I'm going inside to get food and I'll be right back." Claire was trying to speak slowly, but the nerve-wrecking situation made her voice come out cracked and raspy. "Do _not_-" the redhead raised her tone and an eyebrow "-leave the car. Understood? I'm locking you from outside, and I want you to stay down on your seat until I get back."

"Okay, mommy," Becky whispered in return, looking slightly afraid but apparently aware that Claire was only leaving her because she had to. She then stretched a hand, pretty much the same way she did when Alice carried her for the first time, and she made a gesture Claire recognized; her heart tingled before she heard the hoarse words. "I love you."

The leader swallowed hard as she attempted to smile. She mirrored Becky's hand sign and then squeezed the little girl into a tight hug. "I love you too," Claire whispered into her bushy hair.

With that, she jumped out of the Prius and pressed the lock button on the key. The redhead collected the knife inside her boot and exchanged one last look with her daughter, gesturing for her to hide. When Claire spotted the last of Becky's forehead, she turned around and entered the store.

It was mostly destroyed from the commotion that day, and many shelves and goods were smashed on the floor. Claire walked in carefully, watching her back and her surroundings. There was an eventual cracking noise coming from far ahead in the electronics department, but she would not bother checking it. As far as it – or them – stayed there, she would be okay grabbing food and leaving.

It was too risky to use a cart, so Claire started to pile up the basics in her arms – cereal boxes, dry fruit packs and a few bottles of water that lay forgotten underneath a crooked shelf. She found canned food a few corridors away and dumped them inside the handbag she had brought.

Her blue eyes ran past the store quickly. Claire wanted to be assured she was safe, but she was too afraid she would see something she didn't want to. She was so not ready to find out how Alice and K-Mart looked like as undead, and that was the reason why she didn't let her eyes wander for too long at the same spot.

If she caught movement, she would simply run and not look back. Yeah, maybe she wasn't that much into kicking asses that morning…

Claire had to slow down her pace, because the cans were rattling noisily inside the bag, and that would draw unwanted attention to her side. She decided that it was full enough to be unloaded; she was going to leave what she got in the car and come back for more. Besides, she could check on Becky.

She was halfway to get to the door when something caught her attention. If Claire moved a few steps, she'd be in the hardware corridor, and God only knew how much a shovel or a hoe would be helpful.

There was blood on the floor, but her attention was no longer on the dark red pools or even the hardware session. A glimpse of blond flashed past the corner of her eye, only a few shelves away, and she felt her feet rooted to the ground.

K-Mart was walking by, completely unaware of Claire's presence. She marched slowly and clumsily, and she could even look like a sleepwalker wasn't it for the bite marks and blood on her neck and the milky color that had erased the bright brown hue from her eyes.

Claire felt her breath hitching in her throat, but the lifeless teenager barely registered it either. The redhead gulped, relief washing over her as she realized K-Mart would not be a problem. She didn't want to see her that way, she didn't want to taint her memories with an ugly picture of what used to be a healthy, happy teenager.

When she finally managed to move, Claire notice how much she was shaking. She _definitively_ was not in the mood for all the ass kicking she thought she was.

The redhead took a deep breath and walked slowly towards the door. _Relax_, she kept telling herself. _Quiet, now… Careful… You're almost there..._A low grunt made Claire freeze. She didn't turn her head, and yet she captured the image with her peripheral sight.

Tall, toned, blonde…

She had been shot six times in different parts of her torso. Claire actually had the nerve to count when she finally faced Alice stumbling towards her. Her beautiful green eyes were gone. The memory of Claire was gone too; she dragged her long legs towards the redhead to attack her.

Alice held her gun recklessly, no longer aware of its utility. No matter how slow she was now, Alice was still a lot stronger than Claire, and she had a good chance at biting her if Claire did not react. The redhead didn't think twice – her hands were busy, but her legs were free. She greeted Alice with a kick on her bleeding stomach.

The gun fell from her grip when the blonde tripped and stumbled backwards. Claire dropped the supplies and ran for it. The weapon was in her hand when Alice pulled herself up angrily towards the redhead, who had her at gun point with professional preciseness.

Claire had to give her that. Her throat burned as she gulped. "I'm _so _sorry," she whispered as she squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the trigger.

The noise was loud and dry, and echoed all over the walls of the store. Claire opened her eyes carefully. Alice was on the ground, put down to rest at least.

Claire could not believe it was over, just like that. Alice was supposed to be somewhere along the lines of immortal or just absurdly hard to kill. How come the t-virus could have defeated someone that is already infected? Well, she was just a heartbroken survivor, and not a fucking scientist.

The redhead took one step closer, her heart racing inside her chest as she approached the fallen body. She kneeled down and removed the ring from Alice's finger, tucking it inside her pocket along with the one she was wearing when she woke up.

She hooked the gun on her belt and bend over to collect the food behind her. Her hands were shaking and her breathing was irregular as she did so. The leader closed her eyes and groaned when she heard more undead coming.

K-Mart was not among them, and she decided against wasting another bullet. She spun around and ran to the car. Claire fumbled for the key chain with her unsteady fingers, but she made it inside the vehicle before the horde got her.

She slammed the door shut in their faces and looked at Becky. The girl had a look of shock plastered on her face, but Claire let out a breathless chuckle as she smiled at her daughter.

"Your mother _definitively _can kick some serious ass, honey," she said, feeling a lot braver than she did seconds ago. Claire ignited the car and hit the gas pedal. Maybe they didn't have as many supplies as she planned on getting, but armed and properly aware of what was out there, the redhead was completely up for returning any time soon.

**XXX**

Ada held her breath as she waited for the Red Queen to speak. The girl was one hell of a nerve wrecking hologram. Wesker didn't seem to share her discomfort, though; he kept watching the A.I rather expectantly as she studied the monitor, the image frozen on the precise moment where Claire Redfield did not hesitate to shoot Project Alice's infected clone.

"Interesting," she said with her robotic voice, turning to face Ada and Wesker. "Humans choose their offspring over their partners. Is that a pattern, Albert?"

"Seems to be," he muttered. "But I have the impression that Redfield only wanted to spare Project Alice from living as an undead. It still was a sentimental gesture towards her partner."

Ada rolled her eyes. You could always count on him to throw fuel on the fire.

"She didn't do the same for the blonde teen," the Red Queen argued.

"Dahlia is almost like a daughter to her," Wesker said, staring at the paused image as well, trying to figure out Claire and all the humanity she possessed. "It was probably harder for her."

"The answer is still inconclusive," the Red Queen said. "Agent Wong, proceed with another simulation. Have Dahlia's clone in charge of the horde. And make sure you use Las Plagas this time," she added. "The regular ones are much too slow, and I don't want my test subject having any more advantages over them."

Ada merely nodded in agreement, and with that the hologram disappeared.

"This kid's a pain in the ass," she hissed. Wesker chuckled behind her.

"We're getting rid of her soon, Miss Wong."

Ada sensed him coming closer to her. She closed her eyes when she felt his breath almost licking the back of her neck.

"Until then, do as she said," he whispered, grinning when he saw goose bumps on her skin. He had a secret pleasure on the way he disgusted Ada. "Just make sure the kid is not killed or bitten. We'll need her till the end. My satellites are showing me just how impressive things are getting. The real Project Alice has developed protective instincts for the real Dahlia. I'm sure Becky will be essential when she gets here."

Ada stared at him deeply, holding his burning gaze. "I wish you luck. If Abernathy ever finds out you're behind it, she's going to kill you."

"Then I wish _her_ luck," he grinned and offered a smile that did not reach his cold eyes, leaving the room a second later.

The Asian woman waited for a moment just to be sure that neither him nor the Red Queen were coming back unannounced, and then she hit the usual commands on the keyboard. The Terra Save was moving slowly, and she really needed to gain some time. They were at least five days away from Arcadia, and she had no means to communicate with Alice until then.

The broadcasting waves were under Umbrella's radar now, and she could not risk it just to tell the blonde to hurry because Wesker was enjoying torturing her friend. Ada wheeled her chair to a different monitor after shutting off the other. Claire and Becky were close from the house; the Chinese woman sighed and pressed the red button.

"Good luck, Redfield-"

**XXX**

When Alice woke up, the most unusual landscape greeted her eyes. There was whiteness all over the place, except for the dark gray trail up ahead. She looked at the back of the car and found Crystal and Luther fast asleep, both curled up against each other. The air was a lot colder than they were accustomed.

Next to her, K-Mart kept her eyes trained on the road, but it was evident the chilly atmosphere was making driving very uncomfortable. There were visible bumps in her arms and her fingernails looked slightly bluish against the steering wheel.

"Turn on the heater and come sit here," Alice muttered. "I think we have blankets on the trunk."

"The heater's broken," K-Mart answered, not showing any signs of weariness.

Alice knew she was trying to prove she was strong, but she thought that wasn't really necessary.

"Broken?"

"Actually… Claire disconnected a few cables so we wouldn't be tempted to use the air conditioner. We were very short on gas and it was damn hot back then."

"No problem," Alice said, checking for gaps on the dashboard. "Show me where the cables are and I can mend them."

When K-Mart did not respond, the blonde turned to look at her. The teen was visibly embarrassed. "I kinda used them to make bracelets."

"Then I kinda can't fix it."

The girl turned her head to find Alice grinning. "I think we can handle it," K-Mart said, smiling back at her and then turning to the road.

"Three more miles and we're switching positions," Alice said, resting her head on her seat. It was almost dawn, but she was sure the sun would not warm them much more than that.

"Yes, _mom_," the teen grunted, rolling her eyes.

It felt oddly good to hear that, like Alice was that important, and she shook her head, deciding it was always safer to keep K-Mart talking when she didn't want to overanalyze things.

"So… You're really eighteen?"

"I have a calendar, Alice."

"I could've sworn you were one year younger."

K-Mart hesitated for a while, until she finally burst out. "I'll be eighteen in December, okay? It's not that far!"

"Which month we're in now?" the blonde asked absently minded.

"May," she answered shrugging.

"You grew up too fast," she muttered, looking out of the window at the passing snow covering the destroyed land.

K-Mart had expected anything but that. She thought Alice would tease her till the day she died. "You're acting weird."

"Never mind me," she chuckled awkwardly. "Too much sun on the head."

K-Mart didn't seem to buy that, but she decided to respect Alice's need of making excuses. The teen had always known she cared, and she was glad to have that awkward protector in her life.

"Do you miss her?" she asked after a while, making a soft turn to the right as she checked the rest of the convoy through the rear view mirror.

Alice rolled her eyes and sighed. She should have known that was coming.

"I try not to think about that if I can help," she said slightly irritated.

"I think you do, because you came back and all," K-Mart said, not caring about Alice's tone. "But one thing bothers me. That… _friend_ of yours, that woman, Jill-"

"Hey, no need to worry about that," Alice cut her before she went any further with the subject.

"I'm just defending my big sister's honor," she said matter-of-factly, and the blonde laughed.

"Claire doesn't need people defending her honor for her, K-Mart. She can do it by herself."

"Yeah, she could totally kick Jill's ass," the teen said with a proud smile.

"That would be something interesting to watch," Alice chuckled, trying not to picture the scene too much. After a long moment of silence, she took a deep breath and sighed. "Yes."

"Yes what?"

"I miss her."

**XXX**

There was disappointment in their faces, and not even Alice could pretend she didn't notice it. The convoy had travelled for agonizingly long weeks, and a piece of land with a hangar covered in ice didn't seem to be the Promised Land they had in mind.

"Well, what did they expect? Sesame Street decorated for Christmas?" Jill scoffed at the general dark mood that flowed about the Terra Save members. She looked pretty mad herself, and Alice had the slight suspicion that the remnants of her last cigarette were wearing off. They had run out on them a day ago, and she was considering giving Carlos the task of informing Jill about that.

It was very cold and very gray there, and after watching people offering jackets to each other and starting fires, Alice decided it was safe to explore that nothingness for a bit. K-Mart was entertained with a piece of paper and a pen, taking inventory of their supplies and throwing orders here and there. The convoy was safe from Jill's grumpy leadership if K-Mart kept doing so well.

Alice checked on her one last time, like a parent leaving their kid at school on their first day. She shook her head and kept moving towards the hangar. Up at the snow-covered roof, the blonde spotted what no human eye could have ever seen – a fading logo of Umbrella Corporation painted on the decaying structure. Alice didn't even look back; she was sure no one had followed her.

The hangar didn't look better on the inside than it did on the outside. There was snow invading the place through old gaps, as well as the freezing air made its way in. She noticed a long metal counter at the farthest corner of the warehouse and she went to it.

Alice ran her hand over the cold surface and brushed off some snow from the panel. Despite the place looked absolutely precarious, she found under the ice a flat monitor and a radio. She was almost pleased to see Ada Wong's face on the screen. _Almost_.

"Keep on giving me reasons not to hunt you down and kill you," the blonde snarled.

The Chinese agent didn't look scared or slightly bothered, for that matter. She kept her impassible eyes on Alice for a moment and then she spoke.

"_Always a pleasure to see you, too. Umbrella has all the channels under control now, and I can't stay tuned for more than five minutes, or they will be able to track my transmission and then track your group. Just let me do the talking, Abernathy. I'm sure it won't kill you to hear me out in silence for a few seconds._"

Alice let out an angry sigh, but she didn't argue. Claire was more important than her hatred towards the corporation that ruined the world.

"_This is a military base that belongs to Umbrella. On the panel, you'll enter the security code POWER07, and an entire arsenal will be at your disposal. We have weaponry to suit an army, first aid kits, canned food, clothes and an Osprey. You are going to set up a team and lead them west to Kamchatka, Northern Russia. The Osprey is already set up with your route. You'll only find a Soviet submarine pen built in the eighties, and that's why you'll need someone with computer skills to hack the system and enter the underground facility. You won't have problems in the air traffic because Wesker wants you to find the place and get in. All the access codes are inside the helicopter, stored in a chip attached to the dashboard. You'll have to make it from the submarine pens and get into the testing environments. I'll meet you there and show you the rest of the way."_

Alice felt her heart skip a beat. "_Testing_… environments?"

"_We're talking about Albert Wesker. You think he would just leave Claire inside a comfortable cell while he waits for you? I give you my word I'm keeping her out of danger as much as I can, but I need you to move fast before he finds out."_

Words failed her. Ada saw the fear and despair that fought their way through Alice's body and mind.

"_You have five hours, Abernathy. I can't guarantee you more than that. Good luck."_

And with that final line, Agent Wong disappeared, leaving Alice facing a blank screen. She could not wait another second. She entered the security code on the panel and, to her surprise, nothing happened.

After seconds that seemed to last an eternity, a clenching noise took several loud gasps from the people outside. Alice ran to the line of cars and joined the convoy on watching the ground parting open, revealing a huge warehouse buried under the snow. She turned around to face all the awed expressions.

"I need someone with computer knowledge. We're breaking into a facility controlled by an artificial intelligence."

Her voice sounded cracked, desperate.

"So we came all this way for a rescuemission of someone I don't even care about? No one cares we're freezing here?" Bennett asked, curling his thin lips in distaste as he looked around for some support. However, all she found were the angry looks everyone was throwing at him, but Luther was the first to actually speak.

"You're more than welcome to stay, you little piece of shit," the former basketball star turned to the blonde. "I'm no use with technology, but I'm joining you on the brute team, Alice."

"I am, too," Angel nodded his head, joining Luther's side.

Everyone stared at Mikey when he took one step forward.

"I used to run a small website that allowed people to download movies, games and music."

Alice looked at him for a full minute. "You'll have to be enough to get by," she finally said, and then turned to the rest of the group. "For everyone that's staying… There are warm clothes underground, as well as first aid supplies, food and bunkers. Chris, Jill, Carlos, Luther, Angel and… you, boy… You all follow me so we can get ready. We leave in fifteen."

"One second there, partner," Chase came to her direction with a frown. "You cannot leave me out-"

"I'll need you here," Alice cut him. "Someone needs to secure the area and watch out for the others. I can't leave K-Mart here unprotected-"

"Whoa, now _you _hold on a second!" the teen came fuming towards them. "I learned how to drive, I learned how to use a gun, I led the convoy when you were knocked out, and now I'm _staying_?" she asked indignantly. "You gotta be shitting me, Alice…"

"You're in charge of the convoy now," the blonde said calmly, even though she felt tense with Chase and her team witnessing the somehow private exchange between them.

"I'm coming with you," K-Mart said, shaking her head and folding her arms.

"I really don't have time for that. If you are as mature as you say, stop pulling this fucking girlish argument and do what the convoy needs you to do. You're not going, and that's final," Alice said, finally losing her patience. She held K-Mart's defiant gaze, and she watched the teen's face growing absurdly red with anger.

She thought the girl was going to put up a fight, but something unexpected came instead.

"I hate you," K-Mart hissed with her eyes on the ground, and then she stormed away.

Slowly and very uncomfortably, one by one the members of her squad went down the metal stairs to get armed and better dressed to stand the cold. Alice let out a deep breath and closed her eyes, feeling angry that Jill was still there, right behind her.

"You-"

"Go get ready, Valentine."

She didn't get to see if she pissed off Jill, or even hurt her – she doubted about the last one – but Alice didn't care. Wesker was submitting Claire to tests, and that was driving her insane. By the time she got down the base, everyone was gathered around the Osprey and supplied with machine guns, heavy coats and boots.

No one said a word to her as she got ready, and they merely climbed onboard the aircraft, not expecting any kind of briefing. Just as if they had made a deal that was never voiced, all the guys sat on the cargo area, while Jill took the co-pilot seat.

Alice took the chip from the dashboard and placed it inside Claire's old duffel bag. She put it in the inner pocket of her coat and stared at the panel, desperate to take off but also hating to leave things like that with K-Mart.

"You know that she doesn't hate you for real, don't you?" Jill asked absently-minded, staring out of the window. "It's a good sign when they say that, you know. Teenagers hate their mothers and fathers. Seems to me that you're doing the whole parenting thing right."

"It doesn't make a lot of sense if I'm _not_ her mother," Alice grunted, switching the panel controls and breathing in relief when she realized she had not forgotten how to handle an aircraft like that. The propellers started to spin and the dark monster sprang to life.

"You are the only one she has, Alice. You gotta be stupid or too fucking arrogant to not see that," Jill retorted, rolling her eyes and entertaining herself with adjusting her boot laces as she complained under her breath something about not having cigarettes. She then turned to the men on the back and started to yell to be heard over the Osprey noise. "Redfield, Olivera, Ortiz, Luther and-" Mikey opened his mouth to give her his last name, but Jill just cut him off "-boy. Lock and load. Shoot to kill."

Alice would prefer to jump off of a cliff rather than admit to Jill that she was right, but what she said about K-Mart not actually hating her made her feel better and a lot more relieved.

_I'm going to bring Claire back to you, kid… And then, maybe…_

_Maybe we can start thinking about a fucking family…_


	5. She'll never let you go

**5. She****'ll never let you go**

_**Golden days are so far away**_

_**There's a black wave up above**_

_**Out on the wind you hear a crow**_

_**She's under your skin and you drift away**_

_**She spreads her wings when she's gonna fly, the crow…**_

_**If you make her sing when she's coming she will let you know…**_

_**A frozen hand takes your breath away**_

_**As she leads your soul through the dark**_

_**You know that she came to break your heart**_

_**But oh when she moves you fall in love again**_

_**And she spreads her wings when she's gonna fly, the crow…**_

_**If you make her sing when she's coming she will let you know…**_

_**She spreads her wings and they black out the sun**_

_**You won't hear her sing and she'll leave when the damage is done**_

_**Cold heart, warm gun, a dying sun**_

_**Bright eyes, black soul, she'll never let you go…**_

_**And she spreads her wings when she's gonna fly, the crow…**_

_**If you make her sing when she's coming she will let you know…**_

_**She spreads her wings and they black out the sun**_

_**You won't hear her sing and she'll leave when the damage is done**__  
_

**Song by Hurts, **_**The Crow**_

**XXX**

It felt like she only had time to shut the door behind her and take a deep breath before the noise of crawling footsteps and gnarls entered her ears and made her racing heart jolt.

Claire involuntarily touched the gun on her belt and craned her neck to check the streets through the curtains of the front window. There were at least a hundred of them outside, marching towards their house with unbelievable intent for creatures deprived of rational intelligence.

"You gotta be fucking _kidding_ me…"

She spun around and found Becky looking expectantly at her, a half-eaten cereal box in her hands. Claire thought she was pretty smart, even for an apocalypse child.

"I stay in the closet, right?" Becky asked before she could say anything.

"I'll be up in a minute," Claire told the girl with confidence. Her voice was no longer shaking or less firm than it used to be when she led the convoy through the country. She heard her daughter's footsteps fade and then she advanced to the window again, feeling her blood tingle with the perspective of causing some more damage to Umbrella's storage of monsters.

She was really enjoying being an Abernathy. It felt like nothing could stop her, and her thirsty for vengeance after everything they took away from her was the energy she needed to carry on.

Claire's heart suddenly stopped. For a second, the world went silent and she wished with all her might that she was hallucinating. However, Umbrella seemed to be always ready to surprise her when she convinced herself that things couldn't get any worse.

K-Mart – or the body that used to belong to the teenager – was the first on the line of fire. It seemed to Claire she was the one alluring the others to proceed. It was a great irony, in fact. Claire had taught her how to lead, and now Umbrella was using it against her.

"_Fuck…_" she hissed, taking a step back. There was no way she could escape from that horde without shooting them. Claire was not ready for that. If she shot K-Mart, it was the end of everything, the wrapping up of her past. She didn't want to say goodbye just yet, but she had a kid alive that depended on her.

And then she made up her mind. The redhead stormed upstairs after Becky. She was getting them out of that house. The little girl was curled up inside the closet like she had been taught, but she did not hesitate to leave when Claire called her out.

The leader felt the girl squeeze her hand tighter when the first signs of the attack started to pop up all over the house. There were loud bangs against the walls and the doors, stones were thrown against the windows, and the raspy breaths sounded closer and closer.

Claire knew perfectly well that they were surrounded. But well, hadn't she been surrounded so many times before? She only had to stay cool and think.

It was a lot easier when she didn't have K-Mart, Alice or Becky in her life, though. She could jump out of a window, tumble some on the grass, and maybe even break a bone, but Claire would still run and make it. Now, with Becky, risking getting hurt was not even an option.

She looked up at the ceiling in the corridor. A small door stood above them, and Claire was tall enough to simply tip toe and reach the chord to pull it open. She had the gun at ready when she heard the first one enter the house.

"_Don't move,_" she mouthed to Becky. Her daughter just nodded, eyes wide open with fear as Claire pulled a frail-looking ladder down. She gestured for Becky to go first and then took the rear, pointing the gun to any possible threat.

However, nothing came after them. Claire checked if Becky was near her and then she shut the trapdoor.

Downstairs, the Las Plagas undead moved slowly, almost stealthily. They inhaled the air to their dead lungs, sniffing the scents of the two humans. It was crucial to their existence to have those two. They didn't know why they were doing it, but somehow it was imprinted on their survival instincts that both targets had to be chased.

Half of the horde had stayed outside; it was also an instinct to attack in turns. Usually large groups got hit by the powerful weapons those humans carried, and a small house crowded with creatures trying to run away didn't seem much of a wise move.

Those undead had learned how to wait. They had learned how to be silent, and they had learned how to plan. The resident plagues in their bodies helped them not to fear anything; bullets and stabs were only a delaying factor, and they could not afford that.

Claire let out a loud breath as her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness. There was a tiny window in a far corner of the attic, and some light was managing to enter the place. She pulled Becky with her towards it as silent as she could, but the Las Plagas followed their muffled footsteps intently on the roof.

Two of them took the stairs, the human scent leading them precisely to the trapdoor. The rest of them started to make noises downstairs – they threw the furniture across the living room and tossed portraits on the floor. The clattering would distract the humans. But not even Las Plagas instructed by the Red Queen and Albert Wesker were good enough to trick Claire Redfield.

Her heart pumped adrenaline through her veins at top speed, and that was her best defense mechanism. Fear usually drove Claire to act for survival. She opened the window quietly, eyes focused on the direction of the trapdoor. She knew they were pacing below it, and it was only a matter of time until they could figure out how to get through it.

She turned to Becky. The girl's eyes glistened in the dark, and Claire felt helpless as she could not waste any second soothing her.

"Have you ever climbed up a tree, honey?" she whispered. Becky shook her head. "Well, time to learn."

Claire had no idea how she remembered it, but she knew there was a very large tree between their house and the neighbor's. She hoisted Becky to her arms and held her firmly once she spotted a thick branch only a few inches away from her hands.

"It's like escalating bars on the playground," the redhead whispered, encouraging the girl. "I need you to hold on to me as strongly as you can so I can carry us both through those branches, okay?"

Like an adult, Becky knew there was no way out. She swallowed her fear and enveloped Claire's neck with her arms and clasped her legs around her waist. The leader was surprised with her forceful grasp.

"You're damn strong, kid," she muttered with a proud smile, slipping through the small gap on the wall and grabbing the branch. Claire checked if it was thick enough to sustain their weight, and once she did, she swung her body forwards and let go.

It hurt her shoulders and wrists like hell to carry both of them, but luckily the tree trunk wasn't too far. Her legs wobbled clumsily at first, but as soon as she synchronized her breathing with her arms movement, Claire got balance and speed.

She concentrated on two simple things: Becky's weight and the trunk. Her mind shut itself from everything else around them, including the undead that stood only a few meters away.

If they caught movement and looked up, they would see mother and daughter escaping the house, and then things would get ugly. There was no way Claire could hold them both with one hand and shoot undead with the other – she was an Abernathy, but she was not Alice.

Here sore hands finally made the final inches of the scratchy branch. With one arm around it and both feet propped on its knots, Claire helped Becky sit on a large fork so they could catch their breath for a moment. The tree leaves stood still with the absence of wind, and it was the perfect cover from the undead.

Nature seemed to be on their favor that day. There was a loud crack on the opposite side of the house, and the dragging footsteps suddenly became firm stomps. The Las Plagas ran furiously after the noise, and Claire did not hesitate.

She jumped off the tree and stretched her arms up, looking at Becky deeply in the eyes.

"Do you trust me?"

The greenish hue of that child's eyes was somehow overwhelming even for Claire in her most centered self, and her courage faltered for a second. What if Becky got hurt? What if she could not run fast enough to another safe place?

But then again, she would have to push her own demons aside. Becky leaned forwards and jumped too. Claire puffed loudly and her muscles screamed in protest, but the kid was safe in her arms.

She pulled Becky down to the ground and felt for the gun attached to her belt. It took her a full minute to understand she was in excruciating pain. Claire looked down at her right foot; there was blood on her boots and on her pants.

Sticking her fingers carefully inside the leather, she removed the knife, watching her own blood on the shinning blade. However, there was no time to check how deep the wound was, because they really had to run.

The first step she took was hell, and the second was nothing better, but then again fate or someone really seemed to be watching for them. The booming, robotic voice echoed in her ears.

"_Stand by. Sequence interrupted. Stand by. System will be rebooted in ten seconds."_

Claire groaned in relief, chuckling lightly despite the pain. Becky was fully alert this time, and now only the undead stood literally dead on their tracks. They had ten seconds of advantage to move.

Limping, the redhead pulled Becky with her, trying to run as fast as her wounded leg permitted, when something occurred to her.

The car.

They ran back to the house; it was still parked in front of the garage. Claire felt Becky tense with the sight of the creatures immobilized around the vehicle. Her expression was mortified, but the redhead had to urge her to keep going.

"They won't hurt you, I promise," she whispered, moving between two of them to help the little girl get inside the Prius. Claire limped around it and got in too, holding the steering wheel like a prize. The voice boomed again.

"_Stand by. Sequence initializing in two seconds._"

She ignited the car and hit the gas pedal. The pain climbed up from her leg to the rest of her body, but it didn't even matter. She maneuvered the Prius in the exact moment the undead regained their movements.

Claire ran over a few of them and soon they were on the street, gaining more and more distance.

They drove around for about fifteen minutes, until a different neighborhood came to view. More suburban houses entered their sight, peacefully bathed by the sun like nothing dreadful was taking place a few miles from there. She parked in front of the closest one and used the car's hood to support her weight as she moved around it to get Becky.

They took a moment to watch the new place. On a second glance, Claire saw it had been touched by the horror Umbrella caused too. There were shattered glass windows and the wooden boards from the porch were stained with blood. The redhead picked the gun and used her good foot to kick the door open.

She locked it after Becky got in, and when she turned around, K-Mart stood in front of her, glassy eyes focused on something past them. The teen's breathing was raspy like the others', but the sight of her was much more shocking than anything else.

Claire had no idea how she had moved so fast. It wasn't humanly possible, or even_ undeadly_ possible to move that fast. The redhead felt her throat tighten as a tear burnt the corner of her eye. She aimed her gun at K-Mart, who growled furiously in response. Claire's hands were shaking.

She closed her eyes and clicked the gun's hammer, pictures of K-Mart coming to her mind like a million bullets. As her heart's rhythm accelerated, she heard herself hiss through clenched teeth.

"_Run, Becky!_"

Claire opened her eye the second the little girl let go off of her hand and sprinted towards the staircase. K-Mart turned for the chase, but Claire had pulled the trigger before she could make more than one step in Becky's direction.

The gunshot echoed in the air and then it was over. Slightly dizzy and finally giving in to the pain in her right leg, she tumbled over the house, calling out for Becky. Upstairs, it didn't take long for her to find her daughter hidden inside someone else's closet.

"You're a good girl," Claire said, sitting down next to her, feeling exhausted. "You're brave and strong. Like your mother."

She felt the girl snuggling closer to her. Taking a deep breath, she rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes, allowing the memories to come back to her.

The desert stood underneath her feet and in front of her. Everything she could see past the fence was a horde of starved undead. In the front line, Alice ran, her long legs hitting the sand mercilessly as they propped her forwards, K-Mart in her arms. Claire watched both blondes jumping up over the fence and coming to her side.

K-Mart smiled. Alice smiled.

And then both of their images faded away. She held Becky's hand, and for the first time in a long time, Claire admitted she was scared.

They were alone.

**XXX**

It had been four hours since Ada turned off the monitor and cut the transmission with Alice. She had started another simulation in Suburbia, and she had been mad when Claire hid herself and the girl up in the attic of the house. There was no way they could stay in there for long, and the Las Plagas would soon figure out a way to catch them.

However, when she looked to the screen again, she noticed Claire Redfield hanging from a tree, the little girl holding onto her for dear life. And she had really thought she could not get more pissed with the redhead.

"I promised Abernathy I'd keep you safe, but you're really not making my life easy," Ada grunted as she tapped a few commands and decided to take a bigger step. It was only a matter of time until Wesker tracked her movements anyway.

She purposely removed K-Mart's clone from the scenario – it took a single button to shut off the chip and deactivate the girl – and she also deactivated Becky's frail connection with Umbrella. She had a chip too, and Ada would have to remove that later, whenever and _if_ she ever got the chance.

With the undead paralyzed, Claire finally used her brains and ran away with the car. Ada thought she might be hurt, considering the halting, but she knew the leader of the convoy had been through worse before and she would cope with that until Ada could figure something else to help them.

The Chinese agent stood deep in thought when someone burst inside her office. She jumped almost imperceptibly and turned around. Wesker greeted her with a wolfish grin.

"Problems with the simulation?" he asked calmly, removing his sunglasses.

Ada flinched internally. "The system scan detected a virus, and I had to re-start it."

"A _virus_, Agent Wong?" the chairman forced another grin that was colder than the previous one. "Sounds like an irony, doesn't it?"

"Sounds like a lot of things," she grunted under her breath.

Wesker approached her screens and keyboards, watching intently as Claire Redfield escaped successfully from the Las Plagas with Becky.

"Luckily I had something already set up. Just in case," he muttered, tapping the commands and guiding the system camera to the nearest suburban area. Another clone of the teenager, Dahlia, was on stand-by mode inside the house. "The Red Queen wants to corner her. Her only chance to save Becky is to finish off the clone, now."

Ada felt sorry for Claire - more than she felt for Wesker when Alice finally had her hands on him, in fact. She sat down next to the repulsive CEO and waited for more instructions. The Agent knew he had already figured out most of what she was doing behind his back, but Wesker was dissimulated enough to pretend he had no idea.

"And she made it. Again," the blond man snarled. He had a twisted smile on his lips and it was difficult to decide whether he was mad or satisfied with the fact that Claire had finally faced the worst scenario and saved the little girl.

Ada saw the twisted smile turn into a malicious grin as they both watched the second monitor. In the middle of all the whiteness, a black dot landed, like an insignificant fly. Wesker zoomed in the camera outside the facility and it captured detailed outlines of the Osprey and its riders.

"Oh, well, well, well…" he hissed. "Look what the cat's brought in."

Alice jumped out of the aircraft, cracking the thick layer of ice under her boots. Ada counted six more people climbing out after her.

"It's a good thing you gave her the heads up, Agent Wong," Wesker whispered without looking at her. "I'm smashing them with my thumbs. You are very good to lead people to their own death."

When he turned around, Ada was gone. He hadn't expected her to attack him because of Leon Kennedy, but the Chinese was bolder than he gave her credit for. She didn't stand a chance inside the complex, no matter how much she knew about it.

He grabbed a microphone and turned it on.

"Ocampo, prep your team and get your ass down here. We have company."

"_Roger that._"

A few feet under the office, in a dark room, a glow of red flicked and ignited over Rain Ocampo's chest. She stood up from her sitting position and loaded her machine gun, turning around to stare at the fifty soldiers that waited for her orders.

"Ladies and gentlemen… It's showtime."

**XXX**

"I hate snow."

Alice turned to look at Jill and noticed her friend scowling as she coiled her legs against her body.

"Good thing we moved to Alaska, then."

"Oh, you're talking again," the brunette scoffed, watching all the blinding whiteness surrounding them.

The blonde ignored her and maneuvered the Osprey to the east side. She had already located the gigantic vents covered in ice, about two miles away from their current location.

"We're landing," she informed over the radio.

"Already?" Jill asked with a frown. "I don't see anything."

"That's because you're not looking in the right direction," Alice held her by the chin and turned her face to the right. Jill squinted and then arched one eyebrow.

"Thank you for that," she grunted, massaging her jaw when the blonde removed her hand. "But seriously… How can you be so sure? It seems like it's abandon- _oh_!"

"Yeah," Alice grunted, pulling the throttle in position to start landing. The Osprey trembled and wobbled roughly as it approached the icy ground. She could hear some grunts and complains back in the cargo compartment, but she had no time for softness now.

Claire's life was at stake and she couldn't care less about offering comfortable flight conditions to the others. They bumped almost violently with the frozen surface of Kamchatka, and the minute she stabilized the Osprey, Alice shut the engines and unlocked the safety leveler. She kicked the door open and jumped out.

She actually felt the ice crack underneath her feet.

Jill and the others came right after, covering their heads with their arms, trying to get some protection against the cool wind from the propellers. They marched towards the vents led by the blonde, no one daring to ask questions or to doubt her judgment.

Alice looked irrationally angry, and not even Jill was bold enough to meddle with her temper.

She suddenly stopped dead on her tracks, observing the barometer half-buried in the snow. There was a small slot on the right side. Alice squatted next to it and removed her gloves to fumble on her pockets for the chip. As soon as she found it, she inserted it inside the barometer, which immediately revealed a digital screen and a keyboard.

"Your move, boy," she looked at Mikey and pointed the equipment with her head. She stood up to give him some space.

Mikey didn't like the idea of being this close to her, but he obeyed and started to type some keys. The first screen requested an access code that was already filled in thanks to the chip. He felt his fingers rigid on the keyboard, but not even the uncomfortable movement could be an obstacle now. If he committed any mistakes, Claire could die, and he was sure Alice would kill him.

If Claire died because of him… Well, he wouldn't wish otherwise.

Fortunately, Ada's chip was absolutely synchronized with Umbrella's security screens, because five codes later, the vents on the ground started to part open, revealing an immense round base with the Soviet emblem on it.

Alice was the first to jump on it, and she was already searching for the descending button as the others followed.

Carlos and Jill exchanged concerned looks as they brought the rear together. Mikey was next to Alice, suggesting they used the chip to get the elevator to move, Luther and Angel paced nervously behind the pair, and Chris had his hand stretched for Jill to come down.

"She's been to more boot camps than we can count, man," Carlos said to him, placing a warm hand on the brunette's shoulder. "Go ahead, Jill. I'm right behind you."

Chris eyed him murderously even though his blank expression didn't give it away – not much, at least. Jill rolled her eyes and shook her head. Nothing classier for an independent woman than two stupid men trying to court her in the middle of the apocalypse.

She ignored Chris's hand and pushed herself forward. She heard the muffled thud when Carlos jumped after her, but she ignored his pleasant smile as well.

"Scared, girls?" she asked Luther and Angel.

Both men laughed, ignoring the tension going on between Chris and Carlos too.

"Feels like I'm about to enter the court for my first game," Luther said, not sounding very happy with the memory.

"What happened?" Angel asked.

"I threw up on my coacher's shoes."

Jill and Angel retreated several steps when he said that. He laughed.

"I'm kidding. I did good and scored the victory point."

"Do you ever stop babbling about basketball?" Chris grunted annoyed, passing by the trio and joining Alice and Mikey.

"He's just jealous, don't worry," Carlos said to Luther with a kind smile, loud enough for the older Redfield to hear.

Alice turned around with an ugly face. "Will all of you shut up? We're trying to work here!"

"Here, there's a code for the elevator too…" Mikey muttered with a smile of relief; it disappeared when Alice stared back at him. "We… We'll be able to go down, now."

She hit the button without hesitating. The base shackled for a second and started to descend slowly. Alice wanted to thank him for making it work, but her mind was too far from good manners that she didn't even know what to say. Instead, they stared at different directions and moved away from each other quietly.

According to the display, they were approaching the underground level. Alice turned and faced the six expectant faces behind her.

"Get down," she hissed, lowering her body. She was the one closer to the elevator's edge, and she loaded her gun and pointed it to the descending concrete wall, waiting for her target. Alice heard six other clicking noises and acquiesced. It was the first time she had friends and _the boy_ going to a crazy mission like that with her.

It would be so much easier to move and act alone, but somehow their presence soothed her animalistic mind, not allowing it to take control. She needed her rational human mind working besides her beastly strength if she wanted to destroy Umbrella for good and save Claire.

Bullets greeted them when they still were a few feet from the ground.

"Motherfuckers," Jill grunted, throwing something similar to a grenade past Alice's head.

As the elevator came to full stop, they could see it was a disc that shot their enemies as it spun in the air. Chris counted seven men on the floor when he stood up.

"Incredible," Angel hissed, slightly amazed with the improvised move. He patted Jill's shoulder softly and exchanged looks of surprise with Luther.

"Show off," Alice murmured with a discreet smirk. The brunette gave her the finger and laughed. "Let's keep moving."

She took point, Mikey and Jill on her heels as the four men brought the rear. Other Umbrella soldiers showed up on the metal ladders of the compound, but with Alice in charge, no bullets made it past her. She killed them all with extreme ease and precision that she actually scared the ones that had never seen her in action before.

The cold water from the pens was dark and looked chilly, but Alice didn't catch any movement on its surface and beckoned the team to go on. They ran past the half-submerged Russian submarines and found an archway indicating the exit.

She had no idea where they were supposed to be headed, and the sudden appearance of Ada Wong almost send the whole operation to waste. Mikey was the first to react, flecking the wall beside the Chinese woman with bullets.

"Stop!" Alice yelled at him. Ada showed up from behind a concrete column, wearing the usual red dress and a blank expression. "Where's Claire?" she demanded in a hoarse, threatening hiss.

Mikey had lowered his gun, and he noticed his hands were actually shaking.

"Thank God he has poor aim," Ada said, approaching the group and finally showing signs of weariness. "Hello, Major Abernathy. Long time no see."

"Cut it out!" Chris snarled, taking a few steps and stopping next to Alice. "Where's my sister?"

"Edginess runs in the family, then," Ada commented with her eyes on him. "She's deep further in the facility. I'm here to guide you to get there."

"Well, let's go, then," Jill said impatiently. "Or is it a coffee break?"

"I could do with coffee right now," Angel murmured, earning a death glare from her.

"You're… better see it first," the agent offered a pair of glasses to Alice. "We're off the clock and I know you'll have many questions. This will answer everything before you start asking."

Alice stared at the accessory and didn't take it. "I just wanna find Claire."

"Put it on," Ada smacked it on her hand. "I promise you I'm taking you to her afterwards."

The blonde eyed her suspiciously and then complied. It was like a fast forwarded movie, and the first image of Claire had her stomach clenching into knots. The redhead was wrapped around bed sheets. On a bed.

And then, as if the world had gone mad, she showed up with breakfast. Claire punched her. Everything that unrolled before her eyes was so fast and confusing that Alice did not even know where to start with her interrogatory.

"Watch all of it," she heard Ada say before she could even speak.

They were a freaking married couple. They had a house on a sunny place. They had a Prius. Mikey – even the boy was there. And there was the little girl that jumped into their arms. In that world, K-Mart was nothing but a chain store, as the real teenager didn't recognize Alice or Claire. There was an attack. Alice watched herself _die _before Claire's eyes. And then K-Mart died too. She heard her cry.

And Claire had unshed tears on her eyes when she had to shoot the undead Alice. She flinched when the redhead had to shoot the undead K-Mart.

Alice removed the glasses and approached Ada, flaring her nostrils, her face a dangerous inch from the Chinese woman's. "What. THE FUCK. Was that?" she hissed.

"Clones. It's a testing area. This whole facility is dedicated to tests with the virus."

"This is sick," Alice threw the glasses back at her. "This is sick even for you!"

"I only control the tests. Wesker and the Red Queen developed that."

Alice stood in silence for a moment, ignoring her team's anxiety, which seemed to build up with each passing second.

"Claire thinks I'm dead. Claire thinks _K-Mart_ is dead," she could not even voice her fury loud enough. Alice felt her blood boiling dangerously underneath her skin. It was Jill's hand on her arm that brought her back to her senses. "How could you do this to her?" Alice finally found her vocal chords as she yelled at the agent.

"Let's move and fix this," Jill said slowly, grabbing her more firmly and turning to Ada. "Right?"

Ada merely nodded before exchanging one last look with Alice. "We're heading to the Moscow environment. I need you to shut down the system," she said to Mikey. "We don't want the Red Queen awake when we get there."

"What's the… Moscow environment?" Carlos asked as they started to move through a dark and wet corridor.

"A simulation area," Ada explained, checking her own digital map to alert them about the security team under Wesker's control. "It's a reconstruction of the city. Umbrella has been producing clones since humanity resumed itself into… well, _you_, and the Red Queen created a program to make the clones as similar to humans as possible. Memories are imprinted on the clones so they have basic human instincts, such as hungry, thirsty, fear, feelings of friendship, hate and even love. In the past years, Umbrella used those scenarios to trick the most powerful countries to convince them to buy the bioweapons. We have Tokyo, New York, London… Every important city was built up down here."

"That's… creepy," Luther whispered, clasping his gun more strongly.

Alice hurried and soon she was walking beside Ada.

"Who's that kid?" she asked quietly, disturbed with the familiarity she found on the girl's features. "She's a clone of a dead kid?"

"She was created inside Umbrella's laboratories, under the supervision of a very important geneticist. Wesker already killed him, of course, but-"

'Who's that kid, Ada?" Alice urged her. There was a long pause and then the agent finally spoke.

"She's brand new DNA. A mix of regular genes of a man and… not so regular genes of a woman."

"What woman?" Alice insisted even though the answer was pretty clear to her.

Ada checked her map again before sparing the blonde a look of sympathy. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "Let's take the right, here."

By the end of the corridor, a large metal door blocked their way to the other side. Chris marched towards them and stared at it with a frown.

"Hand grenades?" he suggested.

"No," Ada shook her head. "Where's the boy? Give me the chip," she ordered when Mikey approached them. He handed it immediately, looking embarrassed.

"I'm sorry for shooting you," he muttered.

Ada ignored him as much as she ignored Alice's dazzled face. The blonde was still slightly off and mute since she heard the news. The Asian woman inserted the chip on the door's slot and the system immediately recognized the passcode. The hinges creaked a bit and the door slid open.

Everyone stared in awe at the nocturne sky of Moscow.

"I can't believe it's not real," Angel said, looking around the Red Square.

"Keep close and moving," Ada instructed.

They crossed the square in silence, their footsteps being the only noise as they moved. The air was oddly quiet, like a real city devastated by the mortal t-virus. There was a barely audible click, but the team kept moving. Carlos was the first to notice Jill had stopped a few steps back.

"What the-?" he looked back with a frown, and he felt icy dread going down his stomach when he caught the expression on her face.

At this point, everyone had returned and stood around him, watching Jill in confusion.

"Do not come closer," Jill said quickly when Alice took one step in her direction. "I think…" her grayish eyes were on Ada. "Seriously? _Here?_"

The agent sighed. "It's a landmine," she explained, her voice sounding frustrated. "It was activated by your weight and-"

"Yeah, we know how landmines work," Chris interrupted her. "How do we deactivate it?"

"We don't," Ada said. "Unless we find something heavy to replace Jill. It would still be extremely risky, but we can try."

"Excellent," Jill said gruffly. "Loving this trip so far!"

"I don't like the idea of being one shooter short, but you'll have to wait here. We'll work on it on our way out."

"She's not staying behind!" Alice snarled before Chris or Carlos could voice their equal indignation towards the woman.

"Remember when I said we're off the clock?" Ada retorted. "We really are! Wesker is in control of Claire's testing area! He's going to kill her if we don't move fast!"

Alice swallowed hard as the internal battle started to take place in her head. On one hand, she had Jill, her best friend. On the other, Claire and the kid. Jill made the decision for her.

"You go get her," she said. "I'll wait here."

"No, you won't!" Carlos snapped.

"Would you like to take her place, then?" Ada asked sarcastically. "Because that's the only-"

Before she could finish, Carlos had pushed Jill aside and placed his booted foot on the exact same spot she stood half a second ago.

"Why did you do this?" Jill yelled at him, her cheeks flushing as panic started to rise in her chest.

Chris walked up to her and tried to restrain her frenetic arms. He nodded quietly at Carlos as he guided her back to the group. Jill was still panting furiously when Alice held her around the shoulders; the blonde looked at Carlos, but her voice failed her.

He waved his hand at the former Major. "I'll be here when you get back," he said, and then his dark eyes were on Jill. He ignored her mad expression and said in the softest voice a man stepping on a landmine can manage. "Don't forget me, Valentine."

"C'mon, Jill," Chris propped her forwards as she seemed unwilling to move her legs.

Everyone exchanged one last look with Carlos and then turned around to follow Ada.

"See you later, Olivera," Angel saluted him and walked away at last.

Carlos watched the group disappear in the dark, and he thought he heard Jill's voice at the distance. He smiled.

"It was an honor to step on a landmine for you, Jill."

Ten minutes later, Jill's hoarse scream cut the air when an explosion burst around the Kremlin and set it on fire. Alice held her back, receiving slaps and kicks as Jill tried to disentangle herself from the blonde.

"Get off of me, Alice! Get _OFF_!"

"We have to go," she whispered, holding her hysterical friend as she could. "We have to move, Jill. There's nothing you can do for him now."

"_Shut up_," she pushed Alice away, finally managing to stay away from her strong arms.

"I've got it," Chris muttered to the blonde as he moved past the group and gently brought Jill forwards so they could continue.

The team went ahead in mortified silence, and Alice appreciated it. The voices shouting in her head sufficed. K-Mart hated her, and now Jill had lost Carlos because of her – as if she hadn't caused damage enough in Jill's life already.

Alice hated herself, and she hated that Claire loved her to the point of being trapped like a lab rat for that reason.

It didn't take long for Jill to decide she didn't want Chris's hand on hers. She held her head up and took Mikey's side without saying a word. Everyone was slightly edgy with what had just happened, and for once not even Luther's comment came up to soothe the mood.

"Can you believe it's night under all that ice?" Angel asked him quietly when no one was paying attention.

"You gotta be really fucked up to have these ideas, man," the former athlete said, looking up at the sky as well. "I didn't know they could be so cruel."

They walked for a few more minutes, and if they didn't believe Ada yet, the proof was right in front of them. Moscow ended on a brick wall and another metal door. This time, Mikey didn't wait for orders. He took point and opened the door for the team.

What came next made their jaws drop.

They stood under broad day light, surrounded by houses, trees and cars on a desert street.

"Welcome to Suburbia," Ada said, sliding the door shut behind her.

Alice felt her stomach clench when she recognized the place. She looked around and located the house where her clone and Claire should supposedly live their happy little lives together. She extricated herself from the bonded group and walked slowly towards the yellowish building, enthralled by it.

Despite the corpses and the blood, it looked so mundane that Alice actually missed the world before Umbrella destroyed it. No one tried to stop her, not even Ada. She entered the cool house, and her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness absurdly fast.

Alice squatted slowly to collect the portraits she found on the floor. And there she stood, holding Claire in her arms, smiling like she never smiled in her entire life. Claire's picture smiled back at the frowning Alice. She closed her eyes and tossed it aside. That wasn't real.

And then the shooting outside and Jill's hoarse, furious voice brought her back to what was real.

"I'm gonna kill you, you bitch!"

Alice ran to the street, her gun at ready. Her team was surrounded by Umbrella's soldiers, and her eyes moved past from Jill's bleeding arm to Rain Ocampo's crude face.

Her former friend was leading a group of heavy armed men and women, and for a second Alice saw something red glow on her chest. The blonde joined Chris, Luther and Angel when they started to fire against the guards.

"Leave the leader to me," she snarled at them, referring to Rain. She didn't want to kill her, but the wound on Jill's arm was not getting past unrequited. Alice shot her on the thigh, and she immediately ran to a safer position.

Using her mental powers, Alice sent a psionic blast and finished with Rain's team. She heard her friend growl behind a vehicle as she assured no one else from her team was hurt. Chris ripped a stripe of fabric from his pants and tied it firmly around Jill's arm to staunch the bleeding.

Mikey stayed close to Ada, and Angel and Luther took position on each side of the blonde.

"Come out, Ocampo!" Alice called. "You're outnumbered and I don't like that you shot my friend!"

"That's your problem, not mine," Rain retorted, still out of sight.

She looked at Chris. He nodded, collecting a grenade from his vest's pocket.

"Your last chance to surrender!" he said loudly. "We have bombs here!"

"Shove them up your ass, Redfield! It will be nothing compared to what you'll feel when I find your little sister first!" she yelled, running and hiding in between two houses. Chris ran after her, but she had already disappeared. He looked at Alice for instructions with an angry scowl.

"Let her go for now," she said quietly. Only Ada knew they had been friends in the past, and she was more than relieved that the agent was not sharing it with the rest of the group. "Let's keep moving," she turned to Jill. "How's your arm?"

Jill had angry tears in her eyes, but the blonde knew they weren't there because of the bullet. "Even if this is the last thing I do," she said through clenched teeth, her voice shaking. "I'm with you till the end. Let's blow this fucking barn, Abernathy."

"Any idea where they're hiding?" Alice asked Ada, squeezing Jill's shoulder softly.

"_They_?" Chris frowned. "I thought we came here for Claire."

"We did," the blonde said calmly as they began strolling past the houses with their weapons at ready again. "But Claire found someone… important… along the way, and we're rescuing them both."

"They are a couple of miles away from here," Ada said before anyone started to make questions Alice was not ready to answer yet. "Let's go before Wesker initialize the sequence."

She had a hunch Wesker was just playing with them, that he was sitting on his comfortable chair in front of the computer, watching them struggle through the facility. Moving from one testing environment to another was relatively easy; the hardest part would be to escape the facility under the Red Queen's homicidal watch.

"What was that thing on Rain?" Alice's voice brought the agent back to reality. "The glowing thing on her chest?"

"Those are scarabs Umbrella pinned to their skin. The P30 moves from the device to their blood, and that's how they keep the soldiers under control."

"So if we remove that-"

"We don't know if the effects wear off with time or if they stick permanently after being used for so long. I never saw an employee get rid of it. Besides," Ada added as she indicated the left to the group. "How are you planning on getting close enough to remove it? You think she'll be nice and let you do it for old time's sake?"

"I'm working on that," Alice said vaguely, watching Raccoon City's replica. It was very realistic for a simulation place, but her heart and mind were eager to find out more. Each step they took meant she was closer. She knew she was very close.

**XXX**

Claire was washing her leg on the bathroom sink with a grimace. Blood slipped away with the water towards the drain, and she could take a better look at the wound. It was a two inches cut, not very deep but still painful. The knife had severed one layer of skin and it stung when the water hit it. The leather fabric of her boot had stuck to it, and the pain was ten times worse when she removed them so recklessly.

She had muffled a grunt of pain by squeezing her lips tightly, but she forgot about it when she heard footsteps on the street. There was more than one person outside.

Claire ran to find Becky, limping a little as the cut still throbbed when she moved. She put her boots back as she beckoned the girl silently to go to the closet. The redhead went to the bathroom, grabbed her knife and waited.

**XXX**

"Movement on the left, upper window," Alice muttered to the group as quietly as she could, indicating the house with a tilt of her head. For the first time that day, she locked her gun and put it back on her belt.

Ada and Jill closely followed her, still armed and alert. Mikey came right after them, and Chris, Luther and Angel stood as back up. The living room of this house was messy like pretty much everywhere else seemed to be.

They stopped on their tracks when Alice did, staring deeply at the staircase. Jill thought she should at least stay with her gun in hand, but she knew Alice would not listen to her, not when she was so focused on the upper floor.

Taking point once again, the blonde moved stealthily, green eyes trained in every direction before anyone had time to merely look around. The movement she caught came from the farther room in the corridor, and Alice went on, measuring every step she took towards it.

It was a pink bedroom. Dolls and other toys decorated the walls and she stared at everything carefully. Ada, Jill and Mikey stood by the door and the rest of them filled the corridor, their muffled conversation distracting Alice for a millisecond.

It was in her moment of sloppiness that someone unannounced decided to show themselves. The little girl burst out of the closet and ran, hugging Alice around the waist and catching her extremely off guard.

"Mommy!" the girl said, looking up with innocent greenish eyes and a cute smile.

Her team didn't even have time to gasp in surprise. A flash of red came from the other direction and knocked her to the ground. Alice didn't even try to fight. A violent figure pinned her against the carpet, breathing loudly with fear and rage, a glimmering knife in hand.

Alice held her wrist to prevent the woman from stabbing her. Blue eyes met green ones, and it looked like she had been recognized. The red hair cascaded down her face as she stared down at Alice is disbelief, and she parted her lips several times to speak. She was wearing a military jacket with the name Abernathy on it. The redhead's frown and confusion were more pronounced than the strength she was using to hurt Alice, now.

"It's me," the blonde whispered breathlessly. "It's me, Claire."

Everyone watched expectantly as both women stood still on the ground, Claire on top of Alice and the little girl looking at the wrestling pair slightly anxious.

Claire tried to catch her own breath as she stared down at Alice and refused to believe her eyes. Alice was dead. She had _watched_ her die. The convoy leader gulped, trying to control her lungs, her mind and her heart. She didn't care about her body and weight pinning the woman underneath her. Claire observed her intently - askew blond hair, cut with a blunt knife; bright green eyes that undressed her in seconds, but that now were merely drenched with relief; no marks of bites on her dirt, tanned skin.

Alice offered a twisted grin when she noticed Claire had finally understood.

"_Mommy_, huh?" the blonde let out a breathless chuckle as she arched one eyebrow. "What did I miss here?"

Claire did not respond. She dropped the knife and bent over, capturing Alice's lips with hers into a fierce, desperate kiss.


	6. Soft spots are a bitch

**Long – really long chapter ahead. You've been warned. **

**6. Soft spots are a bitch **

Claire came back to herself very slowly, and when she did, she saw Alice staring right back at her with her damn green eyes. It felt like afterlife having Alice breathing underneath her. She withdrew from the blonde unwillingly, not quite managing to return the shy smile she was receiving.

"You're alive," she whispered. Tears finally drenched her blue eyes, and Alice thought Claire was the most beautiful woman she had ever laid eyes on.

From her spot on the floor, the blonde noticed fumbling boots by the door. She chuckled. "We're not alone," she said in a raspy but gentle voice. There was a look of confusion on the redhead's face, and then she turned around.

Six different people stared at them, and immediately Claire felt her face glowing bright red. The closest person was a short-haired brunette in military outfit, and she was not very sure she liked the smug way the woman was looking at them.

Claire pushed herself up and cleared her throat, trying to catch her breath as discreetly as possible. Alice got on her feet too and stopped next to her, glancing uncomfortably at her boots. The Asian woman on red dress rolled her eyes and sighed deeply, but chose not to say a word.

Next to her, Mikey stared rather uncomfortably at the pair, but he was relieved nonetheless. Claire Redfield was alive, and that was the point of him being there.

Angel elbowed Luther with a smirk. "Told you," he said as the former athlete stared in disbelief at the two women. "You own me, man."

Luther shook his head as they both tried to get a visual from above Ada's and Jill's heads. "She acted on emotions and… and adrenaline," he hissed. "We'll see about that after the fuss is over."

Chris gruffly made his way to the bedroom squeezing his large form between the two friends, and despite all the awkwardness, his heart felt lighter at the sight of his sister.

"Hey, bro," Claire said softly as he locked her into a strong embrace.

The redhead looked around, searching for Becky, and she was surprised when she saw the little girl holding hands with Alice just as if she did that every day. The blonde shrugged at her arched eyebrow. She was just as surprised as Claire.

"We have to get out," Ada urged, sounding like she had finally lost her patience.

The group followed her silently after Claire retrieved her gun from the bathroom and shoved it back into her belt. She remained silent, but there was a lot of noise in her head.

Despite the many questions she was dying to ask, Claire could not help but watch her daughter and Alice moving together on the sunny street of the decaying neighborhood. Becky wouldn't stop telling her things, just as if she spotted no difference between the clone and the real Alice, and Alice just answered her shortly and clumsily, throwing backwards glances at Claire.

_Now _that picture seemed right.

Before the smile tugged too much to her lips, Claire felt her heart clench. Someone important was missing in that scene. She looked at Chris. "K-Mart-"

"Safe and sound," he reassured her with a tender expression. "She was really pissed that Alice didn't let her come with us to rescue you."

Claire blinked astonished. "Alice _what_?"

"Of course no one would've let her come, but Alice was the first to step her ground and do the dirty work. I never thought she'd be so… Well, you know your woman. She's fucking reckless most of the time."

The redhead let her eyes wander over the group walking with them. Apart from her brother and Alice, they were unfamiliar faces to her. She could not believe just yet that Alice protected K-Mart pretty much the same way _she_ would have done. She could not believe K-Mart was _alive_.

There was also something absolutely changed about the blonde even though she looked the same. Maybe it was the way she was now interacting with Becky – naturally, like she already knew the girl. Maybe it was the glow she possessed when she let Claire roam her eyes over her. Maybe it was everything put together. A deep voice brought her back from her reverie.

"Luther West," the tallest man from the group offered a hand and a smile to her. The redhead took it but let go quickly; she didn't like much the way he was looking at her, even though she knew he was just trying to be nice.

"Angel Ortiz," the other one, who was shorter and sturdier, hurried to do the same.

Alice was distracted with Becky, one large hand on the butt of her gun and the other still clasped around the girl's. Claire walked up to Mikey; she tapped his shoulder and he just grinned at her briefly with the same sad expression he wore whenever she was around. He didn't look much different from the one she ran into the first day there, except for the military, dusty clothing, and the nose – his nose was definitively crooked.

Different and darker memories came back to her as she stared at the Chinese woman, and within two seconds, Claire's hand was around Ada's neck. Everyone looked startled, but Ada showed no reaction at all.

"So you remembered me," she said calmly. "I don't blame you, but if you want to get out of here alive, I recommend you leave that for later."

"Claire, this is Ada Wong. She's right," Alice was next to her in the blink of an eye, using her free hand to unclasp Claire's fingers from the agent. "She's our way out."

The Chinese woman massaged her neck for a moment and continued walking. Claire was about to interrogate her, when Becky once again took her off guard. She tugged to Alice's jacket. "Mom, where's my sister?"

Alice instantly searched for Claire, who stuttered "She thinks… K-Mart…"

The blonde didn't let her finish. "She's waiting for us," she said to the little girl. "At home."

"Let's keep moving," Ada urged again.

Claire was shocked. She hurried to catch Alice's pace, but she knew that once she did, words would fail her. She didn't know what exactly she should ask, and then she realized that nothing less than a private conversation would work for them. And apparently _that_ would have to wait, because the short-haired brunette paired up with Alice first.

She was the only one who hadn't introduced herself yet. She seemed arrogant, but she was gorgeous, and Claire could not help a twinge of jealousy that sparkled in her when she noticed how close the brunette and Alice seemed to be.

**XXX**

"So," Jill shoved her hands into her pockets, elbowing Alice with her uninjured arm.

Alice rolled her eyes, wondering why she hadn't expected that from her friend sooner. "What?"

Jill chuckled. "Can't say I'm surprised."

"Oh really?" the blonde muttered, looking around for any threats and feeling Claire's piercing gaze on her back.

"It wasn't just your reaction in Nevada that gave you away."

Alice considered it for a minute, and then she smirked. "I know I lack good manners, but you're not exactly a Disney princess, are you?"

Jill's expression changed swiftly from playful to crestfallen. That kiss felt like an eternity ago, and Carlos's smiling face kept invading her thoughts.

_I'm not into princesses, you know._

Alice didn't have time to ask what was wrong with her friend. Someone cleared their throat next to her, and she knew it was Claire. When the blonde looked around, the redhead's blue eyes were sending daggers towards Jill.

"This is Jill Valentine," Alice hurried to make the introductions. "She's… a good friend of mine."

"Claire Redfield," Jill said with an unreadable expression, stretching a hand to her as they kept walking. "Pleasure."

Claire didn't know whether she liked _good friend_, but she accepted the gesture and acquiesced for a moment. Becky clasped her small fingers with hers, and suddenly it was difficult to pay attention to anything else other than her daughter between her and Alice, holding hands with them both, like-

"Okay, there's an exit about two miles from here," Ada said, making the group stop to stare at her. "We can either go this way to the Tokyo testing environment or walk a few more miles and head to the New York environment."

"We have to choose between Tokyo and New York?" Luther asked with a mocking frown. "Well, that depends. I've been to New York because of my games, but I've never travelled to Japan before-"

"What the fuck do you mean Tokyo _or_ New York? And why are you calling them _environments_?" Claire asked Ada. "We're in… Raccoon City. Aren't we?"

Jill's lips quivered as she remembered the explosion in Moscow. "This is a lie with real traps," she said harshly, finally showing some emotions. "You were trapped in a make-believe city."

"What about the other people?" Claire asked, turning to Alice. "What about the other you? K-Mart, Mikey… Who are they?"

The blonde sighed deeply before answering. When she did, she avoided eye contact with the little girl. "Clones."

"How did-?"

"Umbrella is a very powerful corporation," Ada said. "Every drop of blood people ever donated or collected at hospitals for tests during their lives… Umbrella has claimed property of them alleging responsibility for every human that consumed their products. This is how they made clones to populate the environments. They used this facility to simulate epidemics in big cities, and this way they had the world at war. It was not just the t-virus that destroyed everything. And the humans here… They are just lab rats with imprinted memories."

Claire felt her jaw drop at the unexpected news. She knew there was something wrong with the place, but hadn't that escalated. All of a sudden, she realized she needed to know one very important thing. "What about Becky?" Claire asked quietly, barely moving her lips so the girl couldn't read them.

"She's the result of insemination, and she's been kept for years since the outbreak. She's got a lot of memories, but they're false. In fact," Ada kneeled down in front of the girl and reached out for her face. Claire was about to react, when she noticed the agent was retrieving a small chip from Becky's hearing aid. "This is what controlled Becky during the first simulation. It was turned off later, and that's why she could run away with you."

"Who turned it off?" Claire asked suspiciously.

"I did," Ada said simply. "Now, as I was saying, we have two ways out. If we take this one, we access Tokyo. It will lead us to the laboratories and then to zone three. We can climb up a tunnel with access to the ground. If we walk further in Suburbia, we'll have access to New York, then Moscow, and finally we return to the submarine pens and the elevator you used to get in."

"What's the difference?" Chris inquired.

Ada turned to look at him. "I don't recommend the laboratories. There's a lot of experiments going on, and I'm sure nothing there can be considered less than lethal in there."

"New York it is, then," Angel said, looking around the fictional Raccoon City.

"Any other nice surprise I should worry about?" Jill asked bitterly.

"If it's a surprise, maybe you're better off not knowing," Ada said, leading the way once more. She gestured for Mikey to come to her side. "I need you now, boy. The Red Queen has started to reboot on her own. She's the one we have to worry about. I need you to hack mainframe seven point three, and find the file entitled Project Wesker. There's a cyber-virus ready to be sent all over the system. It's good enough to fry the A.I. As for you," she glared at the rest of the group. "You watch out for Wesker's team. What you saw is not even a third of what he still has in store."

She picked up a device from her dress and handed it to Mikey. It was a thin pad and looked like a very sophisticated computer.

"What else she carries under that dress, man?" Luther whispered to Angel, who chuckled lightly and got another death glare from Jill.

**XXX**

Wesker clasped his hands together as he watched the group moving on the many screens he had in his office. It turned out Ada Wong was a useful traitor. She was going to destroy the Red Queen a little earlier than he anticipated, but it didn't really matter. He could wash his hands clean about that, and he would be free from that holographic pain in the ass to do things his way.

He had no ambition in annihilating human race, but his plan would probably cause their deaths anyway. Wesker felt his neck twitch; he snapped it back in place and took a deep breath. It was difficult to have control of everything all the time. He needed Project Alice – or better saying, her blood – so he could control himself.

Immortality was a bitch to perfect.

**XXX**

"So we get out and then what?"

Ada kept her eyes on the screens she was checking with Mikey, but she heard Alice's question perfectly fine. "I think you've learned one thing or another when you visited Umbrella's facilities," she muttered as they ran the bypass.

"Purging devices," Jill hissed. "Nice way to clean up this mess."

Luther, Angel and Chris stayed a few steps back to cover them. Ada and Mikey walked together in the middle of the group, both fussing about the seemingly impossible access to Wesker's computer. Jill was a little up ahead, and Alice took point, having Claire and Becky slightly behind her.

They moved for about fifteen more minutes, until Ada silently signalized for them to stop.

"It is too quiet," she muttered. "The Red Queen should be attacking us by now."

"Wesker is holding her back," Mikey said, to general surprise. He showed log accesses codes that only Ada understood. "I think he's trying to get to us when we're not expecting it."

"He might be right," Angel said. "Is there a way we can get out without fighting him? I'm not exactly looking forward to meet this guy…"

"I don't think that's what he's planning," Ada said. "Why would he bother doing all this to run away in the end?"

"Excellent," the man nodded, helplessly.

Claire took her time watching Alice as they walked. The blonde's natural ruffled hair looked even more askew under the sun and wind. She wore torn jeans, combat boots and a jacket that looked worn out and moldy. It was just then that she remembered her foot was killing her.

"Can you give me a minute?" she asked, wincing slightly as she removed her right boot. There was dry blood stuck to her jeans and fresh droplets across the dash. Claire sat down by the walk of a beautiful house, next to a destroyed flowerbed. Alice squatted in front of her, removing her jacket and ripping the sleeve material to use as bandage.

As she silently cleaned the wound and gave it the best treatment she could, the redhead watched her, ignoring the heavy stares they were getting. She could not help running her eyes over Alice's toned arms, and for a moment all she could think about was how nice they felt around her – her skin was seasoned and even smelled like the sun.

It reminded her of Nevada, the sand and the endless summer. They seemed to be in a totally different world.

"Where the fuck are we?" Claire asked. Her voice was hoarse but not upset.

Alice recognized the tone, and without taking her eyes off her work, she answered with a smirk "You're swearing in front of a kid."

Claire chuckled, noticing Becky was already talking to the others, earning a round of smiles from them. "I'm serious, Alice."

"Sorry," the blonde said when she used too much pressure on the cut and Claire hissed in pain. "Russia."

"Russia," the redhead breathed. "I fucking hate geography."

"We're far from home, huh?" Alice muttered with a soft grin, looking up at the leader for a moment.

"And you've come all the way to get here..."

"Sure thing, ma'am," the blonde nodded in a perfect impression of Chase.

Claire laughed, but then she waited quietly while Alice finished applying the fabric around her ankle. She put her boot back on and loosened the strings a bit. When she was done, the redhead leaned forwards. "Why?"

"Why what?" Alice asked, frowning as she stared at the neat lace with unnecessary concentration.

"Why did you come back?"

Alice touched the leather lightly, and then she looked up. Her green eyes seemed full of some kind of light that Claire had seen in rare occasions, when Alice lowered her guard around her. It was a sort of overwhelming blaze, and it was really hard to sustain the eye contact. However, she stood her ground and held the blonde's gaze. When Alice opened her mouth to speak, a primal, animalistic howl made Claire jump and the rest of the group looked around startled.

A beast, at least nine feet tall and devoid of skin, stood perched on the nearest building, flexing its hind legs to sprint on them. His oversized brain was exposed, and his whole constitution was like a nightmarish combination of sticky flesh and tendons.

Out of pure instinct, Alice pulled Becky up into her arms and grasped Claire's hand. She looked at the redhead. "You gonna have to run."

Claire clenched her jaw, preparing her body for the searing pain she was about to feel; she nodded silently, and within a second, the whole team was running along, Chris, Jill, Luther and Angel bringing the rear with their rifles pointed to the beast at their heels.

"Shut off that bitch!" Chris yelled at Ada and then turned back to the B.O.W. "What the fuck _is _that?"

"Wesker let the Red Queen come after us, and he's the one that can stop it!" Ada yelled back as she ran side by side with Mikey. They kept tapping the keyboard, and they seemed to have some difficulties due to the movement. "And that's a Licker! Used to be a fluffy bunny before the t-virus!"

"Oh, I feel a lot better, now," Luther snarled, joining the other three at shooting the gigantic beast. Nothing seemed strong and powerful enough to make the creature back off. The bullets punctured his muscles and tore a few strings of flesh apart, but it didn't seem good enough to actually kill it.

"Just aim for the head!" Jill ordered.

It was the most logical idea and it would probably work, but the Licker kept in motion to swerve from their bullets. He crawled up walls like a lizard, jumping from one building to another, crashing them to the ground after the first impact.

Claire let out ragged breaths as she ran, feeling the pain in her ankle climbing its way up her leg. She knew Becky was safe in Alice's arms, but she hated the look of terror on her face. She wanted Alice to speed up to save her daughter, but she knew Alice would never do that.

"How far are we from this fucking door, Ada?" Mikey asked breathlessly.

"Six more blocks," the agent puffed, typing the last access code to Wesker's file. "I think I got it, boy-"

"I have a name, why is that-"

"Shut up and run!" Jill yelled, dragging him along by the collar of his jacket as she and the others ran faster.

Alice could feel anger crawling up her muscles, hardening them and heating up her skin. She was the only one who could actually outrun the Licker and kill it, but for the first time in her life, she hated to be the one with that power. Her abilities were sometimes a selfish defense, because they could only save _her _life right now.

She could feel Becky in her arm and the fear emanating from her. She could feel Claire's uneven pulse by merely holding her hand. Claire was hurt and Becky was scared. There was no way Alice could help them by being too fast, and right now breaking contact didn't seem much of an option.

Only when the redhead stumbled for the first time Alice considered it. She could stand between Claire and the Licker, and she could finish him off without risking killing the others.

It was the end of the line. The brick wall was drawing near, and the metal door was sealed. Ada and Mikey would still have to work the code to open it, and the howling creature was not that far from them – she could hear his stomps.

Alice stopped dead on her tracks, eyes on the street's corner.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Jill asked panting, nearly bumping into them.

"Ada, boy… go open that door," the blonde said, her voice steady and commanding. The agent and Mikey didn't even question her; they hurried to run the bypass again. "Chris and Luther, take point to enter New York. Angel and Jill, back me up. And Claire," she looked at the redhead. "Watch Becky while I deal with that thing."

"_I_ am your back up!" Claire protested, even though she was cringing in pain.

Alice stared deeply into her blue eyes. "No. You are…" the blonde was about to say Claire was too important to risk, but instead, she lowered her voice and said "…her mother," she beckoned Becky to go with the redhead. "Keep her safe."

Claire did not contest it, but she still looked like she hated the idea of not being Alice's partner in action. She was angry enough and desperate to shoot something.

Alice looked back. Ada and Mikey were working on the door, while Luther and Chris waited with their guns at ready next to them. Angel was a few feet to her left and Jill stood closer, looking anxiously at the empty street ahead and then back at the exit.

"Jill, cover Claire," Alice hissed, squinting. Her pupils dilated and her nostrils flared. She didn't even register Claire's snort.

The metal door clicked open. Chris and Luther went in, followed by Ada and Mikey. Angel took a few steps back, mouth slightly agape, realizing the monster was just about to turn and confront them. Claire had Becky in her arms, and she walked backwards, moving to the door but keeping her eyes on Alice. Jill rounded the redhead and the girl, gun pointed to the same spot Alice was looking at.

There was a deafening roar, and then the Licker showed up. Alice growled, displaying a bit of clenched teeth like an animal. Angel drew his gun. Jill checked if Mikey had already crossed the door; she knew it would be wiser to simply run and shut it, but she was sure Alice had other plans.

The B.O.W slammed his fist against the concrete. It quaked and cracked open, making Angel lose his balance. The opening on the asphalt separated Alice from Claire and Becky. Alice snarled and wiggled her long fingers. Jill squinted angrily. Alice followed the Licker's gaze and her eyes fell upon Claire.

The redhead was still moving backwards, one arm around Becky, one hand on her head. Alice shook her head, an evil smile crisping her lips as she stared back at the monster.

"_Don't even think about that_," she hissed.

Her green eyes flashed red and the pressure of a thousand needles pierced her brain. The asphalt split open in several other parts and rolled back towards the creature like a violent wave. The offense managed to knock him to the ground, but he was still alive and tremendously angry. He projected his body towards them, and it was all it took.

The psionic blast was quick and certain. The Licker dropped dead, cut in half.

Alice rubbed the back of her hand on her bleeding nose and turned around. Claire was lowering Becky to the ground, and then immediately her eyes were on the blonde. Angel retreated and crossed the door as well. Jill gave her friend a short nod and walked through the passage where the others were waiting.

Alice approached Claire, breathing in large gulps of air. She patted Becky's head and pointed Jill on the other side of the door. "Go with Jill, hurry," she said gently. The little girl did as she was told, and then Alice's weak smile was gone. Claire looked intensely at her green eyes. They were back to their normal color, but she knew the blonde was struggling to look okay.

Alice thought Claire was going to chastise her, but instead, the leader reached out and started to clean the rest of the blood from her face. "You're a mess," she said softly.

"Thank you," Alice offered a timid smile at her.

"Really? _Now_?" called an annoyed voice. Both women turned to the door, and they saw Jill waiting impatiently for them, Becky right next to her. Alice felt something burning her cheeks intensely, and then she realized that, for the first time in her life, she was _blushing_.

"Let's get going," Claire touched her arm lightly, but she seemed on edge already; it was confirmed when she passed by Jill and threw a nasty glare at her.

"Your girlfriend's a little possessive, isn't she?" the brunette said to Alice when she finally came through the door. The blonde chuckled and shook her head, sliding it shut at last.

In contrast with the sunny environment they had just left, the new place was extremely dark. When the door locked, bright lights colored the buildings and the streets around, accentuating the nocturne sky. They were on Times Square.

"Who's up for a musical?" Chris commented with a grim snort. "_Zombie Cats_."

"I don't know about musicals, but I know you owe me," Angel said to Luther.

The tall athlete rolled his eyes. "I'm not sure yet," he retorted.

"They were _ogling_ each other, man. You don't stand a chance with her!" Angel laughed. "Come on, give me my cig."

Jill overheard the conversation and approached them. "You were betting on Alice's preferences with cigarettes?" she hissed. Luther and Angel looked extremely embarrassed, but she merely shook her head and slapped Luther's arm. "You should've counted me in. I'd win that cig a thousand times if you wanted to know your chances with her."

"What do you know about that?" Luther asked slightly annoyed.

"Enough to advise you to cut some slack and avoid embarrassing yourself," Jill patted his shoulder and turned around to leave. Angel stopped her by holding her wrist. Jill arched one eyebrow at him.

"How about we share this and-" he looked around and saw the New Year's sign on the nearest building "-and watch the ball drop at midnight?"

"How about you stop flirting with me and nothing heavy drops at _your_ head?"

"Glad you didn't forget about me."

Everyone turned around and pointed their guns to the same direction that the familiar playful tone came from.

"Who's there?" Jill demanded with a strangled voice, feeling her heart jam her chest as her eyes looked for the speaker's face in the shadows. The dark figure made a step or two very slowly, holding his hands up to show he was not a threat.

The brunette gasped loudly when Carlos appeared in front of her. He grinned and took another step, but he stopped when she cocked the hammer of her gun and pointed it at his forehead. "Don't move!" she hissed.

He was not an undead, or Alice would have already fired - she had grown extremely overprotective now Claire and Becky were around – and yet she could not be sure of what to think. From what she knew, it could be only Albert Wesker's twisted way of having fun around her.

Jill kept her eyes on Carlos, but it was obvious her next question was directed to Ada.

"Clone?"

It was impossible to say; Ada was surprised they had not run into a replica of the group yet – because she knew each and every one of them had at least one clone. She sighed and checked the screen Mikey had accessed. "I can't tell. All I know is that we have to keep moving!" she answered harshly.

Jill felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Chris. He had his eyes on Carlos too, but unlike her, he seemed resolute. "Let's go, Jill. We saw… what happened."

The brunette swallowed hard; she knew her friend was right and only intended to keep her from suffering even more. Jill was about to acquiesce, when it finally hit her. "Except… we _didn't_ see it," she murmured.

Chris pressed his fingers harder on her, exhaling deeply. He was about to shoot the impostor himself and drag Jill away, when a soft hand tapped his back. He turned around and found his sister looking at him with a serious expression on her face.

"I know what it feels to shoot someone you… know," Claire said in a low voice, not intending to be overheard by anyone else other than Chris and Jill. "Let her check first."

The older Redfield recognized a lost battle, but he still felt prone to protect Jill, no matter how she felt about him. Chris hesitated for a moment, but then he decided to trust his sister.

With Chris out of her way, Jill took a step forward. She felt Claire behind her, and she also felt the tension the group emanated – but she had to be sure, she _needed_ to know…

"The landmine exploded," she stammered, gun still pointed at him. "We heard it."

"Something pulled me up," Carlos explained. "When it exploded, I was about ten feet off the ground. That thing locked me into a disgusting cocoon against a building and then climbed higher."

"What did it look like?" Jill demanded.

"Like some sort of… lizard. And it smelled like rotten meat."

Any clone could know that, and Jill was already losing hope. "You gonna have to work harder if you wanna prove you are really you."

"I can _show_ you something," Carlos said as he drew near, and before Jill had time to react, he grabbed her around the waist and kissed her.

Jill's immediate response was to shove him away. Then she approached him and started to slap every bit of him she could manage.

"Don't you. _Ever_. Make me think. You died!" she yelled in between slaps. "You big – fat – asshole!"

"Well, I think we need to get out of here soon," Chris said. "Before more people start groping each other and forget there's a son of a bitch trying to kill us."

"You're right," Ada agreed, sounding deeply annoyed with all the interruptions and stops they were making. However, there was one thing she needed to know from Carlos. "If you were trapped in Moscow, how come you are in New York?"

"When I escaped from that slimy bag, I saw two doors from up there. I had no idea which one you took, but I decided to risk. It simply slid open when I stopped in front of it. All the lights turned on, and there was a woman's voice speaking all over. I heard something, like metal being dragged against the asphalt, and then I ran. I hid in that dark alley, but then all the lights went off again. I've been there for about two hours, and then I heard you."

"Wesker," Ada hissed. "Wesker let you in." She turned to Mikey. "Come on, boy. Finish the Red Queen now."

Mikey felt the weight of every pair of eye on him. The folder was on the screen, one click away from finally being accessed. He had half expected something bad to happen when he did it, but nothing came. The file with the virus was there, ready to destroy Umbrella's mighty artificial intelligence.

He searched for Ada's eyes. "I need one more passcode."

"We don't have any left," the agent said helplessly, losing her cool once and for all. "Unless-" She looked around and found Alice staring at her.

"_Power is life_," the blonde recited as vivid images moved past her eyes. The military base. Umbrella marching in, Ada leading the way, with the contract and responsibility terms. The motto printed underneath every page of that goddamned document she signed. How could she forget?

"What is that?" Chris inquired.

"Umbrella's bullshit," Alice told him, and then she turned to Mikey. "One of many. Try that, boy."

Mikey's shaking fingers started to type. His heart sped up at each letter, and he held his breath when his index finger stood an inch from hitting 'enter'.

"Do it," Claire said with a gentle nod.

He swallowed hard, memories of that command breaching through his racing mind. Whenever Claire said it, he obliged, no questions asked. Mikey pressed the key and a green message flashed before his eyes.

ACCESS ALLOWED.

"We did it," he whispered, a smile of relief spreading across his face as he turned around to hug Claire. There was stomping and a muffled grunt; he let go off the redhead and saw Jill holding Alice. He gulped when he caught the murderous look on the blonde's face.

Jill was trying to calm her down, but her words were not very effective. "Get a grip on yourself, superwoman."

Alice regained composure after receiving a squeeze on her hand. Becky stared up at her with a look of curiosity on her face. "Why Auntie Jill called you superwoman, mom?"

The blonde had no choice but to laugh, especially after seeing the goofiest look on Jill's face. She picked up the little girl in her arms and winked at her friend. "Why all kids love you is beyond me, Jill."

The brunette struggled for a moment and then she let out a chuckle, feeling ridiculously touched. When Alice laughed at her, she frowned. "_Thank you_ for not shooting, by the way. Carlos could've bitten me back there."

Alice knew Jill was just doing that to hide how happy she was. "He wasn't going to bite you, I would've known that."

Jill shook her head in surrender and elbowed Alice again. "Thank you for _not_ shooting him," she admitted in low voice. "But don't tell him I said that."

Alice grinned broadly, observing Claire and Carlos shaking hands. Then she turned to Ada. "Let's keep moving."

"What have I been saying for the past fifteen minutes?" the agent spat exasperatedly.

As the group marched, led by Alice, Jill saw Claire Redfield approach her. They shared knowing looks.

"Listen…" Jill muttered, not exactly looking at the redhead. "Thank you for, you know, doing that before… about Carlos."

Claire shook her head lightly in understanding, feeling a bit stupid now for being rude at Jill when she obviously was _not_ a threat. Then she pointed Alice a few steps ahead. "Thank _you_," she chuckled. "You just prevented a blood bath."

Both women smiled cautiously at each other, but it was as if some sort of peace treaty had finally worked out between the two leaders.

Claire had a smug smile on her face when she approached Alice.

"Still old you, huh?"

"Old me would've rubbed his face on the concrete," Alice joked, avoiding Claire's gaze.

"I know it takes more than one person to hold you back, and Jill is not even that tall…"

"Well, I gotta be careful. We have a kid now," the blonde said without thinking, gasping the next second once she realized what had just escaped her lips. "I mean, the _group_… has a kid. I didn't mean _we _like-"

"I know," Claire said calmly. "She's already crazy about you and she looks at you like you are her hero. _Why_ would you mean it like that?"

Alice let out an embarrassed chuckle through her nose. "Claire…"

"She actually reminds me of K-Mart when she first met you," the redhead commented distractedly. "She was so caught up by your powers… She always said to me you cared about us and that you would come back."

"Trust me, I'm _not_ K-Mart's hero anymore," Alice said with a sly grin, not exactly able to process this new collection of information about the teen.

"Just because she's mad at you, it doesn't mean she doesn't love you anymore."

"I yelled at her. She said she hated me."

Claire laughed softly and turned to the blonde. She looked worried and that was new and cute. "You have to learn one thing or two about teenagers, Alice."

"Yeah, I heard that…"

The pair fell silent after that, Claire limping slightly and Alice controlling her pace to stay by the redhead's side. Becky had her eyes glued on the bright landscape as they walked through New York.

Not far behind them, Mikey, Luther and Angel didn't bother keeping their voices down, their excitement going up their heads as they felt secure with the destruction of the virtual serial killer. Angel collected his cigarette and lit it, swearing in Spanish as he took the first drag.

Jill let out a frustrated groan as she watched him smoke. She also decided to keep her distance from Carlos since he started to nag her about her arm – as if being shot was not annoying enough. But Carlos was Carlos, and he always found a way to get closer. He smiled, noticing the stubborn grin that kept crisping the corner of her lips. Jill just hated how stupid she was, sometimes.

Despite the general light mood, Ada maintained her trained eyes alert to any movement. With Wesker controlling the facility alone, they were still in grave danger – if not worse. Chris stood closer to her now, his face blank as he walked and watched out for any sort of unexpected assault. His eyes travelled from the lights to Jill and Carlos. A defeated grunt escaped his lips, but his attention snapped back to the environment when a booming voice echoed around them.

"_Stand by. New York sequence initializing in ten seconds. Please, stand by._"

"That's the voice I heard before," Carlos muttered.

"Shit," Claire said, finally unholstering her gun and unlocking the safety. "This is our cue to leave."

Alice's hold on Becky suddenly tensed. She caught the sound of something swooshing towards then from behind, and her reaction was immediate.

"Get down!" she yelled, protecting Becky with one arm and using the other one to pull Claire to the ground with her.

They heard the splattering noise when the swirling ax made contact with something solid. Angel's headless body stumbled down the street, the cigarette still lit between his fingers.

The group didn't have time to protest for him. A muscled, tall creature stood less than one block away from them. He had a blood-stained, morbid outfit, like a butcher from a horror movie, and giant nails spiked out from his hooded head.

"Axeman," Ada murmured, and she was yanked forwards by Chris as the rest of the group set to a run.

"Good thing you know his name, but _move_!" he snarled at her, checking if Jill and his sister were safe up ahead.

The Chinese woman quickly came back to her senses. "Keep heading north, Alice!" she shouted. "Make a turn to the right when you see the Nokia advertise!"

But Alice had no intention of leaving without a show. She had to pay back for Angel, and she had to let Wesker know whom he was playing with.

Suddenly, the fake sky of New York closed up with clouds and the rain started to fall upon them. People appeared from every corner, running for shelter, covering their heads with their briefcases and even yelling for the yellow cabs that suddenly hummed to life.

They paid little attention to the strange group soaking wet in the middle of Times Square, but soon the Axeman retrieved his weapon and swung it again, killing anyone that stood on its range. There was screaming and chaos within five seconds.

"I'm coming with you this time," Claire said firmly when Alice turned to her.

"Becky-"

"She'll be fine," the redhead interrupted her and looked around. Jill was already by her side, reaching out for the girl.

"What are Aunties for?" the brunette winked teasingly at Alice.

The blonde snarled angrily. She had forgotten how stubborn Claire could be, and it was just too damn bad that Jill had sided with her.

Claire knelt down on the street and exchanged a few words with Becky. Alice turned away when they hugged each other, hating to be the one to ruin that. The redhead had always said she wanted a family, and Alice couldn't stand watching how perfect they looked together, just as if Claire had given birth to her.

"I understand you now," Jill said, watching the scene as well as she approached her friend. "They seem great."

Alice chewed at her bottom lip and then she turned to the brunette. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Name it."

"If… If I don't come back… Run like hell and keep her safe for me."

"Will do," she winked with a soft smile.

"And Jill?"

"Hm?"

"Don't you dare stepping on another landmine with my kid."

Jill merely rolled her eyes and let out a chuckle despite of herself.

When the whole team ran past the freaked out population of New York, Alice noticed Claire was right behind her. The redhead had a smug smile plastered on her beautiful face.

"_Your kid_, huh?"

"It's just a manner of speaking," Alice murmured, annoyed that for the second time she was giving herself away so easily around the redhead.

"Whatever you say," Claire cocked her gun and took a deep breath. "Let's go."

"Tell me again why I'm letting you come with me," Alice muttered as they moved past the terrified crowd.

"Because you don't get to tell me what to do," Claire said with a grin, earning a smile from the blonde. "And because last time I let you handle a situation alone, you got killed."

Alice felt her smile falter. "It wasn't me, Claire."

"I don't care," the redhead shrugged. "I'm not taking chances again."

The Axeman stood by the widest place in Times Square, slaughtering the cloned people that tried to move past him. He stopped brandishing the ax when he saw Alice and Claire, just as if he had been waiting for them.

The blonde grasped her fingers around her riffle, feeling the water puddle around her boots. She looked at Claire; there was resolve in her blue eyes, and Alice couldn't help but love the way Claire understood her reasons. She smiled, certain that the redhead would understand just one more time why she was so damn crazy and borderline stupid…

Before anything could go wrong, Alice felt the primal growl crawling up her throat as she pushed herself forwards. She knew what it would take to destabilize the Axeman. However, someone out there knew what it took to destabilize her too.

She heard Claire calling her name, but she had to do it.

She propped herself off the ground with little effort, and the sole of her boot hit the Axmen squarely on the face. Alice was still hovering in the air when he reacted – the creature used the ax like a racket, sending the blonde away with perfect ease.

Only when she fell into the gutter, Alice realized the throbbing pain on her left thigh. She had been carrying the duffel bag attached to her belt like an amulet, and now it almost literally backfired at her. The screwdriver was completely thrust into her muscle. Panting, she sat down straight and clasped a firm hand around the grip to remove it.

The frenzied splashing of boots told her Claire was drawing nearer. With the corner of her eye, Alice caught the tall creature swinging his ax again. She pulled the screwdriver out of her leg with one strangled grunt and pushed Claire to the side. The blow came directly and fully to her stomach. The strength slammed her against the nearest wall and she fell to the ground.

"Alice!"

Claire ran and dropped on her knees next to her, heart clenching inside her chest.

"Fuck," she hissed, looking at the bleeding gap on the blonde's jeans. "Are you alright?"

"Run!" Alice snarled at her. "Get out of here!"

But the redhead was determined to see it through. "I'm not leaving you."

"I was the one who left you in the first place," she said angrily. "Get the hell out of here, Claire!"

"You came back," she said, turning around with her gun pointed at the Axeman. "Now shut up and let me kick this motherfucker's ass."

While Claire unloaded her gun on his head, Alice managed to stand on her feet. It was then that things started to go wrong. At first, it only felt like a pinch on her lower back, and then it turned into a dull ache that spread all over her body. A hoarse grunt of pain escaped her lips as she continued defying her muscles and tried to approach the redhead.

Claire's gun clicked empty. "_Fuck,_" she hissed. The Axeman was not exactly at a safe distance, and she groaned when she spotted Alice's riffle a few steps past him.

Alice tried desperately to use her telekinesis to disarm him, but it simply didn't work. It had been a while since she last felt so… _human_.

And fuck, being human hurt like hell.

She reached out for her back and her fingers touched something pierced on her skin. Alice removed it and threw it away, not even bothering to look. The small dart rolled free on the wet pavement, shining green with its small insignia of Umbrella.

Eyes wide open in panic, Alice watched the redhead run for the beast with no weapons whatsoever.

"Claire, _no_!" she yelled. "Goddammit, you stubborn Redfield!"


	7. Good cheaters, bad cheaters

** cheaters, bad cheaters**

Claire Redfield had been scared many times in her life.

She had learned how to repress it along the years, because, after the virus outbreak, people's hope depended mostly on the security she usually transmitted. Right now, she had no one depending on her for that, and yet she didn't feel scared. Not even a bit. If anything, she was fucking pissed.

The Axeman was twice her size, had a large weapon, and could smash her head with the slam of his fist. Claire, on the other hand, was free to run, and had her height-weight combination definitively at her favor.

The second he swayed the ax, she bent over and slipped past between his legs. Despite the water, the rude contact with the asphalt tore the fabric of her jeans and flayed her knees.

Ignoring the pain, Claire grasped the rifle and twisted her upper body back, shooting him twice on the head. She laid back on the wet street, panting heavily as the Axeman dropped on his knees and fell face to the ground.

She opened her eyes when she heard a stomp. Claire sat up slowly and turned to Alice. The blonde laid sprawled on the sidewalk, eyes closed. Her skin was oddly pale and she seemed to struggle to breathe at normal pace.

"Not again!" Claire groaned, standing on her feet and eating up the short distance with a few teetering steps. She squatted next to Alice and checked her pulse. It was almost not there. "_Fuck_!"

Even though her knees hurt, she straddled Alice and held the blonde's head with both of her hands. "I'm _not_ losing you again! Wake up, you son of a bitch!"

Alice did not even move, and panic finally hit her. The downpour felt heavier, but she knew the chill in her bones had nothing to do with that. She stared deeply into Alice's wet face just as if she could heal her by wishing hard enough.

"Becky and K-Mart need a mother to yell at them sometimes!" the redhead snarled, unable to look away despite the lack of response. Umbrella put all their efforts to prevent those girls from having parents. Claire just could not believe her ears when she heard the ax against the wet pavement. "You gotta be fucking kidding me-"

When she turned around, the creepy executioner was halfway from hoisting his large frame up of the ground. His face remained covered, but she could tell he wasn't exactly pleased with her.

Alice was still unmoving, so Claire stood up and ran to the opposite side of the street. Clinging to the thought that Alice was still breathing, Claire had to keep him distracted and as far away from the blonde as possible. It was all she got anyway.

The Axeman took the bait. He followed the redhead under the rain, his heavy but fast footsteps proving he was more agile than he seemed to be. Claire ran, and she tried not to think it might be the last time she did that.

She let the cold air enter her lungs through large gulps, and she felt each pore in her skin raise with the icy rain. Her clothes were drenched and stuck to her body, and even her boots felt heavier than usual.

When she looked back, Claire saw the blood stained blade coming for her, and she ducked from it. The leader kept running, trying to make a turn so she could check on Alice when she got to the corner. He swung the ax again, and again Claire bent over, feeling the air swooshing past less than an inch from her head.

The Axeman attacked again, and after swerving from his assault one more time the redhead realized she had nowhere else to go. He had cornered her. She stood facing him, panting heavily as she waited for her sentence. Claire looked to her side, not to punish herself for forgetting to take the rifle, but to look at Alice one last time. To her immense surprise, the rifle wasn't there anymore.

And neither was Alice.

Claire turned away and she only had time to see the blade spinning dangerously towards her. One strong arm pulled her down the exact second it hit the wall and cracked it, sending chunks of concrete flying all over them. She didn't have to look to know who had saved her – she knew those arms very well.

Slowly, she straightened up and looked to her side. Next to her, Alice was wearing a very unpleasant expression on her face as she pulled the trigger. The single bullet exploded his head.

The Axeman fell down, and his body rumbled the concrete thunderously, splashing water around his gigantic form.

"That was fun," Alice panted, a faint smile crisping her cold lips as she looked at Claire.

The redhead sighed in relief. "You gotta stop scaring me like that, asshole," she grunted, running her fingers through Alice's soaking wet hair. "What happened?"

"We can talk about that later. Preferably on a warm bed." Alice could not remember the last time she had craved a bed this much.

Claire chuckled. "You're getting old."

Alice stared at her blue eyes and her beautiful face framed by dripping red hair. If Umbrella did what Alice thought they did, Claire had no idea how right she was. "That's the damn plan," the blonde said earnestly.

"Is that another excuse to keep bossing people around?" the redhead asked with a smirk.

Alice grinned broadly. "You need some yelling too, you fucking thickhead."

There was a long pause. Claire blinked several times as her heart quickened, trying to decide if that was Alice's sense of humor. "You heard that, huh?"

"You kinda yelled to my face," the blonde shrugged uncomfortably. "We better get going," she muttered, shoving her hands into her pockets.

She bent over slightly to collect the dart she had discarded moments ago. Her heart dropped to her stomach when she saw the green liquid inside the vial. She was okay with growing old and serving her time, but she didn't like the idea of being suddenly defenseless inside Umbrella. Alice threw it away for the second time and looked at Claire.

"_What_ happened to you?" the redhead asked frowning.

Alice knew she would not drop the subject that easily, so she decided for the truth. "I'm not sure yet, but it looks a hell lot like the anti-virus."

Claire went silent; she didn't know what to do with that piece of information, but it explained why suddenly Alice looked tired and susceptible to get hurt like anyone else. Not to mention the almost fatal outcome of their encounter with the biohazard.

Claire's voice was a barely audible whisper when she spoke again "How are you feeling?"

Alice pursed her lips. "I'm not dying, Claire."

"I know you're not _dying_," she said impatiently. "I'm just trying to-"

"Human," the blonde said gruffly. "I feel damn human."

"_Human_," Claire grunted. "You still sound pretty much the same to me. Always a major jerk when something's worrying you."

"I am _not_-" Alice interrupted her rant as soon as she caught Claire's arched eyebrow. She sighed in defeat and shut her mouth, because she _was_ worried.

Instead of bitching about it any further, Claire hooked her arm with the blonde's and pulled her forwards. They walked together in silence, for once keeping it slow instead of the usual hurried march.

"So," Claire started, but Alice was visibly too frustrated to talk, and far too annoyed that her injuries were not healing. "I don't suppose you've got any smokes."

"Claire," Alice said in a warning tone. "If you're going to keep babbling just to make conversation-"

"Guess you could use a cig too," the redhead nudged her. "Or alternate."

Surprisingly enough, Alice gave a low chuckle. "I hope that doesn't come back to haunt you when Becky grows up." _If she ever has the chance,_ she thought bitterly. However, Claire turned the conversation to an unexpected direction.

"She's the sweetest thing," she confessed with a weak smile. "It feels like she's been mine since she was born… And her eyes…"

Alice clenched her teeth.

Claire turned to the blonde with a distant expression. "They're exactly like yours."

"So you noticed," she muttered, unhooking their arms to tie better the tourniquet on her thigh.

"And so did you," the redhead pointed out. When Alice didn't answer, Claire sighed, getting worked up that she didn't know many things and the blonde wasn't exactly cooperative. "That's not random, is it? There's a reason, and you know it… don't you?"

Alice wasn't prepared to share that with anyone yet, but she was sure Claire would not forgive another omission from her. "She… she was _created_… after me," she said slowly, keeping her eyes lowered to the ground as they continued walking. "Umbrella gave her my genes, so, technically-"

"You _are_ her mother," the redhead whispered. There was a frown creasing her forehead, as if she were deciding whether that was good or bad news.

"Just technically," Alice hurried to explain. "It was you who looked after her. You _found_ her. I didn't even know she existed until… four hours ago."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"_You_ are her mother, Claire. I'm just… DNA."

Alice looked at her expectantly, and for a moment, her eyes fell upon her last name on Claire's chest. "Thing is…I saw what happened in that simulation. I saw the three of us together. That was…"

Claire wanted to wait for Alice to finish it, but she just couldn't stop herself. "Creepy?" she suggested.

"Nice," Alice blurted out thickly. "My clone was really stupid for getting herself killed and missing that," she added as an afterthought.

It took a while for the redhead to process everything. She averted Alice's eyes for a moment, but then she just couldn't ignore the fact that this usually monosyllabic woman was actually trying to say something sweet to her.

When Claire finally met her gaze, her blue eyes were glimmering with that terrifyingly beautiful light that never stopped haunting Alice's dreams.

"What's got into you?" Claire asked quietly. "I mean, if you're right and the t-virus is really out of your system, then-"

"I love you!" Alice spat rudely. "It's got nothing to do with the virus!"

Claire held her breath and looked at her. For several minutes, she tried to speak, but nothing had prepared her for that. Her lips parted open a few times, but her voice was simply gone.

Alice hadn't felt this exposed and uncomfortable in a _long_ time, and it took her only one second to hate that she had sounded so crass. The fact that Claire didn't say anything was not helping either. After what seemed like hours, the redhead finally decided to break the silence.

"You never said that to anyone before, did you?"

When Alice looked around, Claire had a smirk on her lips that made her heart yank with human anticipation.

"'Cause you clearly lost practice or this is new territory. But you might wanna give it another try later," she went on, holding Alice's hand. "On a warm bed."

"If you think I'm wasting time _talking _in bed, Claire… Think again. I might be human but I'm still me."

Claire chuckled, feeling Alice's calloused fingers entwine strongly with hers. "Almost a silver lining…"

Alice watched Claire with the corner of her eye, a discreet smile crisping her lips. For a second, she could even ignore the fact that she was inside an Umbrella facility, under the ice.

All she cared about was that she needed the little girl that thought she was the most awesome mother in the world. She needed the teenager that would hate her from time to time. And she needed that woman standing right next to her, who seemed to love her even though she never managed to put two words together without sounding like a perfect asshole.

**XXX**

Rain Ocampo marched over the wet pavement with her heavy boots and came to a halt right next to the defeated Axeman. She hooked the dart pistol to her belt and kicked the B.O.W's robust shoulder a few times.

"Useless piece of shit," was the verdict, said to no one. The simulation was over and only the dead clones remained in the scenario, spread all over Times Square, just like many times before. As usual, they were just _so _stupid… It wasn't any wonder humanity was almost dead.

Her march went further towards the sidewalk, and she smashed the dart unceremoniously along the way. There was an inch left of anti-virus inside the vial, but her job was done. Her target reacted quickly to the serum and now she had all the odds at her favor. The soldier kept strutting until she found the object she had been looking for.

She bent over and picked the bloodied screwdriver with a look of disgust on her face, and immediately she threw it inside a plastic bag. It would be a lot easier to carry that rather than the ax. The brunette turned around and wobbled the pack in front of the nearest camera.

"Here's your sample," she said with sneer indifference. The Umbrella soldier cringed when her intercom sizzled in her ear.

"_Good job_," said Wesker. "_Claire Redfield and Project Alice are almost at the door. Take the shortcut and ready your team. Surrender them in the next sequence._"

"Roger that."

Rain picked an intercom from her belt and clicked it next to her lips. "Zeta team activated."

One chest glowed red in the Moscow environment. Inside a dark room in the deepest corridors of the Kremlin, another hundred chests did the same. A hundred pair of eyes opened. The soldiers stood up and marched out towards their waiting partner, machine guns in position on their hands. They were going to serve their purpose at last.

**XXX**

With the Red Queen gone and Wesker busy controlling the Axeman, all it took was a mighty kick on the door with Chris's and Luther's strength combined. Both men shared a look of mutual respect after beckoning the rest of the group to the next testing scenario.

Bringing the rear, they closed it shut and stared around Moscow again. It was still hard to believe it wasn't real. Becky clasped her hand more strongly around Jill's. She was the only one who hadn't been there yet, and the change of environments plus the absence of Claire and Alice seemed to frighten her a bit.

"Hey, it's okay," Jill squatted down next to her with a reassuring smile. "I'm here if you need anything."

Becky blinked her round green eyes at Jill. Her imprinted brain sustained a vivid memory of Claire and Jill visiting her at the foster house once, when Alice was busy and couldn't come.

"You are my Auntie Jill, right?" she asked quietly.

The brunette didn't think much before she nodded. "Yes, I am, honey."

There was no point in explaining things to a girl that didn't look older than five or six. One day, Alice and Claire would have to sit their asses down for a serious conversation with her. After deciding she made the best decision, Jill turned around and found Luther smiling at them.

She stood up and brought Becky with her towards the former basketball star. "Look… I know we didn't get along at first, but… I'm really sorry about Angel."

"Thank you," Luther offered her a half smile. "But if you want a cigarette that bad, just tell me."

Jill gasped indignantly. "How can you-"

"I'm _kidding_, Valentine," Luther chuckled lightly. "You gotta chill a little, woman."

"Why is it that I'm surrounded by funny people?"

"Well, Redfield over there is plain and boring," he whispered, pointing Chris, who was discussing routes with Ada and Mikey. "As for your boyfriend… Where the fuck is Olivera?"

Jill looked around too. Carlos stood a few feet apart from them, watching the back of the Kremlin in deep concentration.

"Carlos?" she called softly, just realizing he got the boyfriend title and she didn't even deny it. He didn't answer and kept his back turned to the group. "Huh… Carlos, is there something wrong?"

"No," he said vaguely, still not turning around. "Everything's fine."

"What are you doing?" Luther stopped next to Jill and Becky. "Collecting memories of your favorite place?"

"You could say that," he stared down at his chest. The red glow under his shirt was summoning him. He twisted on his heels with the rifle pointed at Jill, a creepy smile on his face.

Jill hid Becky behind her, and instantly she felt someone pulling the girl away.

"I got her," Mikey whispered next to her ear.

Luther held his hands up. "Relax, man," he said cautiously to Carlos. "There's a kid here."

"Put your gun down," Chris growled, standing by Jill's other side with his rifle at ready. "Put it down, or I'll shoot the hell out of you."

"Put _your _gun down, big boy," Carlos snarled. "I've got nothing to lose, but you? What about Miss Tits over there? I can blow her pretty brain before you pull the trigger. So," he aimed at Jill's forehead. "What's it gonna be?"

"What do you want?" Luther asked carefully, hands still up in the air.

"I just need you to walk a little bit. Boss's coming for you in a sec. You-" he beckoned the gun's barrel at Jill "- bring the rear. Any funny business your friends make and you get a bullet."

Surrendered, Ada and Mikey took the front row, the boy carrying Becky carefully. He wanted to distract her so she wouldn't see much, but he was afraid to do anything that might startle Carlos. Or whoever that guy was.

"Auntie Jill is… helping him back there," he whispered. "Let's play a game with Uncle Mikey, okay? We can't make any sound until your mom gets back."

"But I have two."

Mikey sighed. "Yeah, I know. Until… both of them are back."

Becky agreed with him and remained silent in his arms, watching the city she would never meet in the real world – not like that, at least. Moscow and every other capital was destroyed beyond repair and infected with undead.

Luther and Chris followed them, the last visibly more reluctant than Jill herself. The brunette grinded her teeth when she felt the cold barrel on the back of her head. How could she be so stupid, so easily deceived? She was a fucking cop, for God's sake! Carlos was a gentleman; he would never have kissed her like that in front of everyone.

"Oh, great! Those cramps were killing me!"

Everybody stopped dead on their tracks when they heard it. Carlos stood in the middle of the Red Square, on the exact same spot they left him hours ago.

"They dropped a damn grenade a few feet from where I was-" his grin faltered and disappeared completely after one second staring at the group. "Where's Jill?" he muttered.

The bad Carlos poked Jill's lower back with the gun. She moved forwards past the team, and she felt her heart clench when she saw Carlos there, occupying the place that should've been hers. He had risked his life for nothing, because she was going to die right before his eyes.

The crestfallen look on his face was even worse than being seconds away from her last breath.

"_I'm sorry_," Jill mouthed.

"Let go off her!" Carlos yelled at his clone, propping up one knee on reflex.

"Yeah, stand up," bad Carlos said with a dry chuckle. "She can watch you explode into tiny pieces before I shoot her."

Chris was about to sneak up on him, when Luther held him back, shaking his head almost imperceptibly. An army of about a hundred men and women clad in black marched towards them from the opposite side of the square. They all looked robotic in their uniforms, the Umbrella insignia on their arms and the goddamn red light glowing on their chests.

They were led by one woman – the one who wore the cruelest look. She was actually the only one who didn't look like a fucking robot.

"Ocampo," Chris growled.

"Put your guns down if you don't wanna look like Swiss cheese," she ordered. "And this is not a joke."

"Yeah, we're not laughing," Luther hissed but was the first to oblige. One by one, the rest of the rifles fell to the ground with soft clangs.

Rain nodded her approval shortly as she walked up and down in front of her soldiers. She stopped on her tracks when she saw Mikey with Becky up in his arms.

"You, boy," she called out. "Hands up too."

Mikey only hesitated for a second, and it was all it took to piss off Rain. He staggered and let out a muffled growl when the bullet pierced his leg, but he didn't let go of Becky.

"Give me the girl and no one gets hurt," the brunette snarled, beckoning for him to move towards her. "You're not worth ammunition, but I won't hesitate to kill each and every one of you if it comes to that. Now," she took one step closer from the surrendered team. "I'm sick of having Wesker on my ass all the time. Give me the girl and I let you go. It's a win-win."

"Don't listen to her," Jill hissed angrily at Mikey. They were both already injured and on the line of fire. She was not afraid of a few more bullets.

"Shut your trap, Valentine!" Rain snapped at the brunette, flipping a hand so that bad Carlos kept her secure at his gun point.

But Mikey wasn't listening to Jill either. He put Becky on the ground carefully and produced a brave smile. "Time to show you're Alice's kid, missy," he muttered slowly. "Run, Becky! _Go_!"

He pushed her past behind him on Ada's way. The Chinese woman caught her as everyone, including Rain, watched in awe as Mikey walked towards the Umbrella soldiers with both of his hands in the air.

"She's Alice's and Claire's, and I'm _not _giving her to you!" he shouted, looking past beyond mad. "You're gonna have to kill me first!"

Everyone went quiet. Rain smiled; she shook her head as if she could not believe such stupidity, and then she pointed her gun at him. "I like volunteers."

And then a cracked voice broke the silence – he had never expected that voice to save his ass.

"_Stop_!" Alice hollered. "It's me you want. I'm here."

Claire came right behind her, and just as Alice, she was soaking wet, hurt, and dirty. Chris pulled his sister next to him one second before the laser of every gun was pointed at Alice's head and chest.

**XXX**

The doctor flinched the moment Chairman Wesker crossed the door to the labs and marched straight to him, his cold smile never reaching his eyes. The young man lowered his clipboard and waited as calmly as he could.

"Ocampo has got the blood sample," Wesker informed without preamble. "How long will it take to prepare the serum?"

"Not long, Chairman," he said, relived that he had an answer to Wesker's usual impossible questions. "As soon as I get the blood, I'm going to isolate the cells that bonded with the t-virus and then I'll add regular human cells to it. If the reaction is the one we expect, I can develop the vaccine."

"You know, there are some words and expressions I don't like, Doctor," Wesker said calmly. "_Not long, as soon as, going to, if_… And you managed to use them all to answer something very simple. I asked _how long_."

The young man gulped, feeling shivers rolling down his spine. He had no idea how he ended up subordinated to this creepy man. "One… One to two days, sir," he stuttered nervously.

"Days?" the blond man hissed, removing his sunglasses. His cold eyes glowed bright red. "_Days_, Doctor Perez? You get paid to do _just_ that, and your answer is _days_?"

Technically Doctor Perez never got paid after the end of the world, but he was not stupid to bring that up. Instead, he swallowed hard as his brain tried to think of something else to say.

"I can try to make it faster, if Ocampo-"

"You're not going to try, you're going to _do_!" Wesker said, his voice a dangerous whisper. The small parasites bothered him from time to time, crawling up his veins, trying to break through his skin, tempering his mood. The lumps didn't look good either, and Wesker was no man to keep waiting for things to happen. "We removed Project Alice's powers, and now you work your magic to transfer them to me! You know what I'm capable of if I'm not in my best mood, Doctor Perez."

The Doctor knew that. He still had the scars.

"This is not how science works, sir," he said slowly even though his heart was racing. "Last time we rushed things, I implanted a parasite out of control in your system."

"All I'm asking is for you to reverse the shitty result of your shitty job, Perez," Wesker snarled, taking one step closer to the man. "Is it too difficult for you to understand?"

It sounded like an empty threat, but Doctor Perez knew better. The fact that Umbrella was running out of qualified personnel would not keep Wesker from discarding him. He had seen his clones. _He_ had cloned himself, and that had felt God-like. Now it only seemed the biggest, stupidest mistake.

"Give me the sample," he said firmly.

"I'll have Ocampo sending it right now," Wesker offered a twisted smile. "As for Project Alice…"

The young doctor spun on his spot and walked to the computer, more than satisfied to have a reason to stay away from Albert Wesker. He typed his access code and brought in the satellite screen. It scanned targets and worked based on temperature. Project Alice was just a colored blur on the monitor.

She had blue dots on the extremities of her body. Several red smudges indicated her injuries, and the yellow majority was regular body temperature.

"She's human," Doctor Perez stated.

"I see colors and numbers," Wesker retaliated.

"Those indicate normal conditions. Any human being that went through the same situations she did would look like this. There's no more-"

Small dots started to appear on the image, suddenly becoming considerably large shades of green.

"What is that?" the Chairman asked.

Doctor Perez felt cold sweat pouring out from the palms of his hands and under his hair. Green meant t-virus. T-virus meant Project Alice at her best shape, assassin mode on. Wesker approached the screen, not blinking for a second as he watched the virus take over Major Abernathy's circulatory system.

"Fascinating," he muttered. "Her body's fighting it? Fighting the anti-virus?"

"Looks like it's never been there," Doctor Perez mumbled, frowning. "I don't understand…"

"You don't understand what?"

"That wasn't supposed to happen," he followed the greenish smudges spreading over Alice's body. "The anti-virus is the _cure_. No one is immune to the cure, not even her!"

To his utter astonishment, Wesker started to laugh. The doctor stared at him in disbelief - from what he knew about the Chairman's unpredictable mood swings, this was not the one he had expected.

Wesker shook his head, still looking amazed and yet unfazed that his plan had gone wrong. "Check your samples, Doctor Perez. I'm sure you'll find the anti-virus here, still sealed."

The young man walked to the refrigerated chamber. There was one single vial of green liquid on the glass shelf. It was labeled as _A-V test 4_. "This is only one of the attempts before I got it right, Chairman."

"Are you sure?" Wesker grinned widely. "Isn't it possible that _someone_ sneaked in here, in the middle of the night, and simply… exchanged the labels?"

"Well, the alarm would go off-"

"Even if they had the passcodes?" Doctor Perez remained silent. "I thought so. Well, what was the effect caused by that sample?"

"It inhibits the virus for a short period of time, but then the infection manages to make its way back."

"It doesn't matter," Wesker said. "Project Alice doesn't know that. For now," he added as an afterthought. Ada Wong had definitively not surprised him when she sided with Abernathy, but her coming to the point of exchanging vials… that was insidious, even for the agent's standards.

Albert Wesker liked that. Actually, he hated being deceived, but he just loved punishment too much to care.

**XXX**

Chris was the last to be cuffed. When the soldier pushed him, he fell on his knees next to Claire with a muffled grunt. He noticed his sister looked mad and terrified as she watched Alice surrendered like that in the middle of the Red Square. Becky had squeezed past the adults to join her, and her childish expression was marred with fear as she watched her other 'mother' too.

The landmine had been deactivated, and now the real Carlos stood cuffed between Luther and Chris, hatred covering his face as he stared at his evil version holding Jill hostage a few feet ahead. She was on her knees too, hands tied firmly on her back like everyone else. He could see her dark hair cascading down her face as she hung her head, avoiding his eyes as much as she could.

"Why Alice isn't doing her crazy stuff to save us?" he hissed through gritted teeth, one eye on Jill and the other on the soldiers that surrounded them. No one answered because no one knew what was the wicked game the blonde was playing with Umbrella now.

Alice looked tired. Jill followed her lanky frame with her eyes, wondering what the hell she was doing. In fact, seeing her had been like a immense relief, but now she wasn't so sure anymore. It took her a little while to finally recognize that terrible look on Alice's face.

It was the same look she had the day she shot Angie – a saddening expression that combined guilt and helplessness. If Alice admitted defeat, it meant they could kiss their lives goodbye.

Ada sighed deeply when she saw Claire trying to hold hands with the little girl. Even though she had spent years being a cold blooded assassin, the scene pinched some forgotten place in her brain. The agent watched out for the guards and spoke to the redhead without turning her head or moving her lips too much.

"Do you remember the first time Alice used any of her… attributes?"

"Nevada," Claire muttered, struggling to keep Becky closer as she watched Alice, who still had her back turned to them and her hands up in the air.

"You must remember something more specific."

"Does it matter?" the redhead whispered, feeling her throat burn. All the pain they had been through, all the fights, all the sacrifices… And now they were going to die just like that. Claire didn't regret anything in her life, but she wished she had just one more second to tell K-Mart to be strong, to hold Becky tighter, and, for the last time, to tell Alice that she loved her. At least the teen would live. _Teen_, Claire chuckled bitterly. K-Mart had become a woman and she kept forgetting that. "She was just a child when we rescued her."

"What?" Ada frowned.

"K-Mart," Claire said with a distant voice, glancing up the fake sky. "She grew up too fast."

The Asian woman shook her head, deciding Claire was involved much too emotionally to speak reason. She knew there was a way to activate the t-virus in Alice's body, but she had no idea how. She tilted her head slightly so that Mikey could hear her.

"Can you pin point moments Alice used her powers? Can you connect the events?"

"Every time she had to save Claire's life, I s'pose. Or the convoy, for that matter," he shrugged. "Why?"

Ada remained silent when a soldier marched past them. When he was gone, she whispered. "We need to stimulate her."

Mikey raised one eyebrow. "The fuck you talking about?"

To his surprise, the woman twisted her lips. It was the first time he saw Ada Wong smile.

"I take it was her that broke your nose?" she whispered. "How did that happen?"


	8. Silver lining

**8. Silver lining**

**There's a storm on the streets, but you still don't run  
Watching and waiting for the rain to come.  
And these words wouldn't keep you dry  
Or wipe tears from an open sky,****  
But I know, but I know, but I know I'm right**

And I won't let you drown, when the water's pulling you in  
I'll keep fighting, I'll keep fighting.  
The rain's gonna follow you wherever you go.  
The clouds go black and the thunder rolls  
And I see lightning, and I see lightning

When the world surrounds you, I'll make it go away  
Paint the sky with silver lining.  
I will try to save you, cover up the grey  
with silver lining

Now there's no way back from the things you've done**  
I know it's too late to stop the setting sun.  
You see the shadows in the distant light,****  
And it's never gonna be alright  
And you know, and you know, and you know I'm right**

And I won't get left behind, when the walls come tumbling in  
I'll keep climbing, I'll keep climbing  
The rain's gonna follow you wherever you go.  
The clouds go black and the thunder rolls  
And I see lightning, and I see lightning

When the world surrounds you, I'll make it go away  
Paint the sky with silver lining  
I will try to save you, cover up the grey  
With silver lining.

_**Song and lyrics by Hurts**_

**X**

Same dark eyes, same black hair, same tanned skin.

Rain Ocampo was exactly the person Alice remembered, only now she had something genuinely evil about herself. Her eyes were malicious and she had a constant air of indifference. As she approached the blonde – slowly, torturing her captive audience by twisting her gun around her index finger – a sly smile curved her lips, and this time it was not because she remembered an inside joke; it was because she was going to hurt and abuse everyone until Alice was begging to die.

"Long time no see," she said with a raspy voice. "Thought a get together would work for us, Abernathy. Where's your fuckin' name tag, huh?"

Alice sighed. "I _killed_ you."

"This is getting old," Rain grinned, circling the blonde like a predator. "You can't kill me."

"They experimented on you too?" she whispered.

"Sorta did. Liked it?"

"They turned you into a fucking asshole, Rain." Alice had a small smile on her face when she said that. Not a happy one, though.

Every bit of memory had come back to her, like a stupid movie flashing past her eyes as she was forced to welcome death. At least she knew Rain had been a good friend. She looked back for a moment, and her eyes met Jill's first. At least she had found her weird soul mate, a sort of infuriating half-sister/half-friend in a world that spun around fear of bonding and trusting.

Then she looked at Claire and Becky, and she instantly added K-Mart to the picture. She _almost_ had two daughters. She _almost_ had Claire.

For a loner, she had done pretty well.

Alice had come to terms that she would have to stay so the others could have a chance to go and survive. For the first time in her life, she felt light, the weight of the world lifting from her shoulders. She had to keep strong for one last confrontation and then she would be free from all the guilty and anger.

"I have a deal for you," she said to Rain after what seemed like a long time.

"I don't deal."

"Just hear me out before declining my offer."

Rain glared at her for several moments until she finally conceded. "Spit."

"I'll go willingly with you."

"If?" the brunette raised one eyebrow.

"No conditions. I'm surrendering. You don't have to move a finger. Just make it neatly."

Alice was almost a hundred percent sure that she heard an intake of breath, and she was almost as certain that it had been Claire's.

Rain interrupted her thoughts. "What about the others? You're trying to convince me you don't care about them?"

Alice didn't blink. She didn't even breathe. "And what makes you think I do?"

"Oh, I don't know… Maybe coming this far just to rescue Pretty Ass? Of course, there must be something to do with remorse too… You surely left a lot of people to rot on those roads you used to abandon them," Rain's lips parted into an evil smile as her heightened senses captured the slightest twitch on the blonde's expression. "Got a nerve, heh?"

Alice let out a raspy growl of frustration. Rain had countless advantages over her, but she had to keep trying. "I think you'll end up by not shooting anyone," she said harshly. "I think they turned you into a pussy-"

Her former friend chuckled and fired, shooting Mikey on the shoulder this time. He spluttered out a grunt of pain but didn't do anything else other than writhe as far as his handcuffs allowed him to. After seeing his jacket splattered with blood, Alice turned her back on them again, not even chancing a look at Claire.

"Heard he's the one you like the least," Rain commented with a shrug. "But I think Kick-Ass Abernathy just _flinched_."

"You let them go," Alice said firmly. "You do that, and I'm yours."

"For such a smartass, you talk business like a fucking dumb girl," Rain snarled with an unpleasant smile. "No deal, blonde."

"You don't need them!" Alice hollered as despair started to win the battle against logic. "Take me and just let them go!"

The brunette drew closer to her soundlessly. Alice refused to stare back, but she knew her heaving chest was enough give away. "We're not negotiating!" Rain yelled a few inches from her face. "Shut your mouth and suck it up!"

Alice pressed her lips together, feeling something hot boil in her stomach. She lowered her arms and involuntarily wiggled her fingers.

"Can't say… I'm surprised," said a weak voice.

Except for Alice, everyone turned to find Mikey trying to sit straight to get their attention. Rain snorted.

"Cut it out, speech boy."

"I'm just saying," he shrugged, wincing slightly. "She always screws things up when she comes for us. Always leaves us a lot worse than before. I don't even know why you'd care to capture her. She's a failure. You should tell your boss that."

"Mikey, _shut up_," Claire whispered with a warning tone, staring at him and then at Rain; the soldier had an unreadable expression on her face, and the redhead was sure he would get himself killed if he didn't stop.

"Actually, do me a favor, mate," he went on, ignoring Claire as he directed his words to Rain with more courage than they gave him credit for. "Take her. Take her as far away as you can, 'cos then-" Mikey hesitated for a second. He flinched when the impassible-looking Ada pinched his injured leg. "Then I can _finally_ score with the leader."

"_Mikey, what are you doing_?" Claire hissed through gritted teeth, trying to smack his head.

Rain, however, seemed amused. She stared at the trembling but motionless Alice and then back at the young man. "Wait a minute… Everyone's fucking Pretty Ass here?"

Mikey laughed. "Not like I did."

Carlos and Luther exchanged uncomfortable glances once they realized Chris was right there and they were talking about his sister. Jill rolled her eyes; you could always count on that boy for the worst timing ever, even with a fucking bullet craved on the curve of his neck. Claire was suddenly glad that Becky had a hearing problem.

The army stood unmoving across the square. Alice felt her blood heat up, just as if every cell in her body was a spark ready to burst into flames. Her muscles were shivering so much that her sight was resumed to blurs.

It took her a while to notice that she no longer felt any pain, and the same happened to the cold. There was a very brief flash of red in her eyes.

"Yeah, 'cos I used to fuck Claire _a lot_," Mikey went on, louder this time, even though he sounded like he was struggling with pain. "Hey, Alice, I never got to tell you what it was like, eh? Did Claire tell you?"

"Shut up!" Chris gnarled from the other end of the line. "_Shut_. _Up_!"

"Your sister was a fucking nice laid, mate," Mikey retorted. "I'm sure it's not a reason to be proud, but still… She's damn talented."

Alice's fingers curled slowly into fists. Suddenly every soldier stood perfectly outlined despite the distance. Another second later, she acknowledged thudding noises in her ear.

Time went still.

Heartbeats.

She could hear each and every heart in that square. She recognized Claire's. A low, visceral growl of maddening anger crawled up from the depths of her chest to her parted lips.

They were so distracted glaring at Mikey that they all jumped when a powerful snarl cut the air. Jill saw the impossibly quick movement of a pair of boots. Alice kicked Bad Carlos on the face, snapping his neck before he even had time to realize she had moved. Blood flew out of his mouth and he fell at Jill's feet. He was dead.

Rain was thrown back to the middle of the square by an invisible force, and her machine gun landed several feet away from her.

One by one, the handcuffs cracked open with loud snaps. Alice had turned around and was staring at her friends with that wonderfully smug look they knew all too well. She took a second longer when her eyes fell on Claire, looking gorgeous with that victorious, cocky smirk on her face.

"Show off," Jill grunted with a grin, massaging her wrists as she hurried for her rifle.

Ada patted Mikey's shoulder. "Good job, boy."

He smiled briefly at her. For a moment, he could've sworn Alice had stared murderously at him with her red eyes, but then she had already spun around to fight the other soldiers.

On the ground, Rain let out a loud war cry, and the machine guns fired like an orchestra led by her. The team managed to shunt most of the bullets, but Mikey was not so lucky. He got shot on the abdomen at least three times, and he staggered a little before completely giving in to the pain.

One simple, neat psionic blast was enough to stop the remaining projectiles midair. Alice caught the sounds of the metallic clings and the buzzing noise of the shield as something sizzled in her ears and caused an irritating ache on her temples. Rain pounced against the shield, but the force sent her backwards one more time. The blonde focused on her next target and one more blast had Umbrella's mighty army flying through the air along huge shards of cobblestone and more bullets. Alice felt her blood freeze when, out of the uproar, she heard Claire's raspy scream.

The redhead had a dash on her forearm thanks to someone with poor aim, but it was still nerve-wrecking to see the droplets of blood where the bullet grazed her skin. She could even smell Claire's blood. Alice checked if the red haired woman had Becky with her, and then she turned back to the center of the square. From freezing cold, her temperature escalated to burning hot, and her most vicious, animalistic instincts rose back to life.

A few soldiers from Umbrella tried to stand up, but Carlos, Chris, Luther and Jill took care of them now they had their weapons back. Ada had squatted next to Mikey, watching the rumbling group move past before her eyes as she tried to protect him. He was, after all, just a boy – a bit stupid but nonetheless a very brave boy.

The fire ceased and a mortal silence fell upon the Red Square once Alice dropped the shield.

Rain and her rounded on each other, both wearing similar murderous looks on their faces. Neither of them was holding a single gun. The two women had always been extremely alike when it came to ego's challenge – that was the main reason they were friends in the first place - and what seemed to take place between them now was a battle of nerves instead of a fight for survival.

Alice kept scrutinizing Rain, trying to understand how she could look so confident now that her back up army was smashed. Despite the glow of the P-30, she could not detect anything different that might be affecting her friend like that. She took in a deep breath and her eyes fluttered shut as she caught the a faint trace in the air.

Something reminded her of her own particular scent, like a close relative of the t-virus, only slightly more intoxicating and nauseous than her blood. Rain was snarling, grinding her teeth like an angry beast that had stayed locked up for too long. Alice had no idea if she could outmatch someone as physically strong as herself, if not more, but it was time she stood up for what she had come for.

Alice kicked the ground and flung herself at Rain. She remembered that her friend used to have a slower response when the attack came from the left, but well, hadn't things changed… Her foot made contact with Rain's cheek, but when Alice landed and turned around, the brunette was still standing, unfazed.

She massaged her offended cheekbone and looked at Alice with her cold brown eyes. Before she had time to realize it, Rain had done pretty much the same movement, only with a lot more speed, and she kicked Alice's ribcage.

The blonde _heard_ several of her ribs snap, and hell that was painful. She took in a sharp, awful gasp of air and wheezed it out.

"_Alice_!" Claire's voice rang in her ears, but she wasn't actually listening to anything other than her boiling blood rushing past her veins and thumping against her eardrums.

And then there was firing.

_No…_

To Alice's surprise, Rain took one step back for each bullet that splattered the fabric of the dark vest over her chest, but her expression remained frozen, undisturbed. Alice frowned as she turned her head and caught the smoke coming out of Chris's rifle.

"Don't shoot," she ordered, but in her mind she was begging. Truth was Alice didn't want to lose Rain again, even if that cost her a few more ribs. Those would heal; she just had no idea what bullet wounds could do to her friend.

Alice merely watched as Rain waved her hands very calmly. The bullets slipped past her fingers and fell to the ground. She tilted her neck with a loud crack and looked at Chris.

This time Alice was faster. She attacked Rain from behind and hooked both arms under her armpits and around her neck. The Umbrella soldier just laughed and took one step towards the group. Everyone pointed their guns at her, but they were at serious risk of shooting Alice too, so no one actually pulled the trigger.

From above Rain's shoulder, Alice caught glimpses of Carlos, Jill and Luther. She dug in her feet on the ground and held still. When Rain tried to pull the blonde forwards with her again, more cobblestones cracked open around Alice's boots, but they didn't move an inch.

"What the fuck-?" Rain hissed.

"RUN!" Alice yelled to the others. They didn't move. She looked furiously at Claire. "_RUN, GODDAMIT!_"

Claire seemed to snap back to reality, so she caught Becky with her uninjured arm and beckoned the others to move. Jill kept her eyes glued on the struggling pair.

"Are you stupid, Valentine?" Alice yelled at her as she increased her grip around Rain's throat. "MOVE!"

Carlos rounded Jill's shoulder with one arm and pulled her forwards with him. Claire and Becky stopped next to where Mikey laid, with Ada still squatting down by his side. Chris and Luther hoisted him up carefully, and even though he seemed to be in blinding pain, Mikey had no more strength to complain. He was sweating profusely, grinding his teeth and breathing hard as Chris carried him.

"Back me up," he told Luther, who nodded before throwing one last glance at Alice. Then he moved along with Ada. The Chinese woman kept her concerned eyes on the boy. His legs flopped lifelessly on Chris's hold, and she was starting to think her career had reached a dead end. If a killer could not stand watching a stranger die, then it was probably time to retire.

Claire and Becky were the last in line. The redhead placed one hand over her daughter's hair as she stared aprehensively at Alice and Rain locked up in a match of limbs.

"You better come back, Alice!" Claire yelled. "Are you listening to me? I'm not leaving this place without you!" She felt a firm but gentle touch on her arm. Jill Valentine had a piercing gaze over her and a sympathetic smile on her lips.

"C'mon, Claire," she said softly. "I promise you we're not going anywhere without your little monster."

Claire spared one last glance at Alice and moved reluctantly, Becky still safe in her arms. She heard the dry noise when Jill reloaded her rifle, and she felt her own weapon dangling on her shoulder. Then she noticed they were short on security - Ada had only a Glock at hand, and just three of them were actually able to shoot, once Chris, Mikey and herself were off the count.

They were really close to the doors to the submarine pens, but something felt oddly wrong. Everything was too quiet. Too easy-

"_Run_!" Carlos yelled when about a hundred soldiers showed up just around the corner.

They were dressed much unlikely the usual bunch from Umbrella. Their weaponry looked old-fashioned and yet very dangerous, and there were general gasps when an electric chainsaw roared to life.

Claire and Jill took point, closely followed by Chris. Luther, Carlos and Ada began firing, but this new army looked completely inhuman. The dusty men kept marching towards the group with their cloaks floating about their booted ankles, and only now they could see their shallow cheeks and empty eye sockets underneath the shadow of their military caps. Some of them had _ushanki _at the top of their skull-shaped heads.

"Soviet Las Plagas," Ada muttered to herself before she turned to Claire and Jill. "Open this goddamn door!"

Both women pushed it to the side and crossed the archway to the humid platforms. Chris came next, staggering a bit to keep a firm hold on Mikey, who looked alarmingly pale and sick. Carlos and Luther slammed the door shut when Ada came in last, and immediately the army outside started to fire.

Luckily they were inside Umbrella, and pretty much every material there seemed to be bullet proof. Other than the countless dents over the metal surface, nothing had surpassed their barrier. Claire put Becky down for a minute and adjusted her rifle on her shoulder as she slowly marched towards the spot Chris had placed Mikey.

He had a lot of blood on him, and she could barely see his chest heaving. She felt her eyes burn and she sat down next to him. Her throat felt dry and slightly constricted as she scrutinized his defeated body.

"Mikey, I'm so sorry," she whispered, one tear dangling from the tip of her nose as she leaned over him to cup his face.

"Don't be sorry, C-Claire," Mikey hissed after a long minute. His voice sounded broken. "I showed them, didn't I?"

"Yes, yes you did," Claire tried to smile, but her lips just wouldn't cooperate. She sniffed embarrassingly loud, but the others acted much on respect and ignored it. "Thank you for… everything."

Mikey offered a small grin, and then he coughed. There was a bit of blood on his lips when he acquiesced again. He tried to focus his wounded eyes on Claire, but it seemed very hard for him to achieve.

Claire swallowed hard, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. Her filth cheeks were tear-streaked when she turned around looking for Chris. The older Redfield sat down next to her and grabbed her hand. He didn't say anything to her, but somehow his clumsy presence was comforting enough.

And then, with a final breath, Mikey blurted out "You tell… that woman… to take good care of you… and the girls, sweetheart."

Claire stared at him wide-eyed for a second then she slapped his face carefully. "Mikey? Mikey?"

Chris held her by the wrists and pulled her up with him, closing his sister into a strong embrace. "It's over now. Let him rest."

Claire buried her face into Chris's chest; she let out a muffled, anguished cry against his dirty clothes. She was so absorbed with her sorrow that it took her a while to notice a small pair of arms holding her around the waist. Claire patted Chris's chest and leaned forwards to pick up Becky.

Jill swallowed hard as she watched the scene, even though she could feel Carlos's soothing presence a few inches from her. Luther rested his back against the damp wall, not exactly sure if he should say something. Ada kept her distance; no one needed to know how she was feeling, staring at Mikey and thinking that he was too damn young to die.

Like Leon.

They were all focused in hiding their emotions that a loud burst outside made them jump in their skins. The soldiers were banging the metal door with mighty strength, and by the looks on Chris's face, they could tell it wouldn't take long until the Soviet army managed to destroy the solid wall around the archway and get in.

"Help me hold the door," Carlos told the older Redfield. "The rest of you-" he ran his eyes over the others "-lock and load."

**XXX**

The second she watched the group disappear around the corner, Alice cursed herself internally. Rain took advantage of the blonde's momentary distraction and cast her above her shoulders, smashing her against the stony pavement. She spun on her heels to run after the others, but Alice grabbed her ankles and she ended up smacking her face on the ground too.

The blonde crawled on top of her former friend as fast as she could, and the minute she did, she pressed her arm against Rain's throat.

"That's all you can do?" Rain hissed, hitting Alice's stomach with her knee.

Alice grunted as she rolled to the side, clutching her abdomen. When Rain made the slight indication that she was setting to a run again, Alice threw herself on her and they both collapsed against the cracked cobblestones. The blonde winced when a sharp chunk of rock scratched her cheek.

The deep cut ended by her jaw, and the thick drops of blood that fell on her top seemed to agitate Rain and make her nervous.

"Is that why your boss wants my blood, isn't it?" Alice snarled in the squirming brunette's ear. "It dominates the fucking virus he injected on you."

Rain grunted and writhed underneath Alice, but the blonde pinned her strongly to the harsh ground. She twisted her arms together behind her back and held her wrists with one hand, using the other to fumble over her chest for the P-30.

Rain snapped her head back and hit Alice on the nose. More blood spilled on the front of her smudged tank top, and the brunette's eyes flashed red. She got on her feet breathing hard, staring down at Alice from a safe distance. The scarab was gleaming more brightly under her dark vest.

Alice crawled backwards. She had nothing to use against the soldier other than her mental powers, but she was sure the impact would either kill her friend or infuriate her even more. She didn't have time for chances. Her green eyes traveled quickly from her friend's face to the P-30.

"Hey," she called softly. "Wanna see a cool trick?"

Rain frowned at her smirk, but it didn't last long. In the fraction of a second, her face went from scrunched to blank - the P-30 popped out of her skin and hovered in front of her. She collapsed on her back, shaking uncontrollably and grinding her teeth in pain.

Alice crushed the device with her boot then she knelt down next to Rain and held her still, placing one hand over her sweaty forehead. She could hear her friend's heart rate accelerate and then slow down until she almost couldn't hear it anymore. The brunette remained motionless for several minutes, and for a terrible moment Alice thought she had finally managed to kill her, but then Rain sat up straight as her eyes snapped open.

She let out a raspy gasp and fell back on the ground again.

"Rain?" Alice whispered. "Rain?"

She didn't move.

"Goddammit, Ocampo!" she yelled, shaking her by the shoulders. "Wake up, bitch!"

With the violent yank, a plastic bag rolled of her pants' pocket, and Alice saw the screwdriver. It was covered in blood. _Her_ blood.

She knew the idea was crazy even for her standards, but she had to give it a try.

"I fucking hate science," she grunted, grabbing the tool and placing its tip against the muscle of Rain's thigh. At that precise moment, the brunette woke up. She blinked in surprise at the blonde straddling her. "This is gonna hurt," Alice said apologetically.

Rain arched her head backwards hollering in pain when Alice thrust the screwdriver into her flesh. She breathed through clenched teeth, and Alice could see the frenzy of saliva escaping her lips. When she removed it, it took Rain several minutes to stop grunting, but she calmed down at last, running one hand over her face. She stared at Alice in confusion.

"What was that for, bitch?" she hissed, propping herself up on her elbows as she tried to catch her breath.

Alice smiled. "Feeling better?" Rain frowned but didn't say anything. "You're welcome," she said as she picked her friend up in her arms. Ignoring Rain's rude protests, Alice put her on her left shoulder with perfect ease and started to walk. "Let's take you out of this place…"

"Put me down if you don't wanna get hurt, woman," Rain said, her face unpleasantly wobbling at the same level of Alice's ass.

"Enjoy the view and shut up, Ocampo," Alice said, but then her smile fell off her face when she saw the weird bunch of soldiers piling up by the metal door, trying to break through the walls. She heard Chris's and Carlos's muffled voices on the other side.

Alice didn't even think.

The psionic blast sent them up in the air, pieces of bones and limbs flying everywhere along with a few bricks. Ignoring Rain's complaints, Alice stepped over the dead horde and kicked the metal door open.

Carlos, Chris, Luther, Jill, Ada, Claire and Becky stared at her with different expressions of surprise as the door slammed down loudly on the ground.

"Hello there," Alice said, stepping in the submarine pens and suddenly noticing someone was missing. "Where's the boy?"

When no one answered and she caught Claire's red eyes, she immediately understood. Alice wanted to punch him for what he had said, but she wanted to thank him for whatever it was he had done that triggered her powers back to life.

Claire approached her with a frown. "Why are you-?" she pointed Rain's ass.

"Oh," Alice muttered, twisting on her heels so that Claire could see the brunette's face. "This is Rain Ocampo. Rain, this is Claire Redfield."

"How do you know my fucking name?" Rain scowled even though the blonde could not see her.

Jill approached them with a curious look on her face. "You removed the P-30?" she asked Alice.

"Yeah."

Jill stared deeply into Rain's upside-down and confused profile. She looked absolutely harmless. "Fuck me," she whispered.

"That an invitation?" Rain asked. "'Cause I don't know you, lady."

"Let's get going," Ada said. She was impressed with how easily those people got distracted and forgot where they were and what they still had to do.

Everyone started to move towards the elevator, but Claire held Alice back.

"What?"

Claire turned to look at Mikey on the ground. "We can't leave him here."

"He's dead, Claire," Alice said coldly, despising herself for being unable to protect him as well. She knew he was important to Claire, and she couldn't stand the pain in the redhead's expression.

"I know he's dead," Claire sighed, feeling her throat burn. "You don't have to be so fucking insensitive just because you hated him! He saved Becky just a minute ago-"

"I KNOW WHAT HE DID!"

Alice regretted that the minute the words left her lips. Claire looked just as if Alice had slapped her on the face, but Becky's expression was even worse. _Great, you scared her again, you stupid monster._

"Fine," the blonde mumbled. She looked up at Chris. "Take her," she said, lowering Rain from her shoulder to her arms.

"What?" the brunette complained when Chris held her. "Put me down, I'm not a fucking crippled-"

"Shut up, Ocampo," Chris grumbled as he placed her over his shoulders and walked away, beckoning the others to follow him.

Alice picked Mikey's lifeless body and hoisted him up where Rain had been a minute ago.

"What are you doing?" Claire asked.

"Isn't it what you want? Take him out, give him a proper service when we get back home?"

Claire swallowed the lump in her throat when she heard that. "That's not-" she shook her head with a sad grin. "I meant… not let him _turn_."

Alice sighed. "You want me to shoot him."

"I can't do it," Claire shrugged, offering her rifle.

The blonde rolled her eyes as she snatched it from Claire's hand. _Women…_

"Get out of here, the two of you."

Despite the roughness, the redhead smiled to herself as she retreated with Becky. "And I'm sorry I called you insensitive," she called out. "You're definitively not."

"Almost a silver lining," Alice spat back with a smirk. "I'll be a minute."

When the redhead disappeared with Becky and all she could hear were the echoes of their footsteps on the metal platforms, Alice put Mikey back on the ground and unlocked the gun.

She touched the trigger but didn't pull it. She had no idea why she thought it would be easy.

Mikey looked a lot younger than she remembered, and she just realized she had no idea how old he was. Maybe he was even younger than Claire, but now it was too late to ask. She took a deep breath and pointed the rifle at his forehead.

_Thank you for protecting my kid, boy._

The gunshot echoed all over the walls and then there was silence. Alice slung the rifle on her shoulder and didn't look back as she made her way through the damp labyrinth. She found the group waiting for her by the elevator, Claire and Becky staring at it with a mix of fear and awe.

"Valentine, Olivera," Alice passed by them to join the redhead and their daughter on the platform. "You know what to do."

They both nodded and, under the others' watch, Jill and Carlos started to remove the grenades from the pockets of their jackets. After throwing them all over the rusty slopes, Carlos held out a small device with a digital clock on it.

"What's the yield?" Chris asked as he adjusted Rain on his shoulder.

"Enough to blow this joint," Carlos grinned, attaching it on the nearest wall and synchronizing it with his own watch. "We have one minute."

He jumped on the elevator after the others and hit the ascending button. The platform didn't even move. Carlos pushed it again, and again, until he was punching it, punctuating each blow with Spanish swearing words.

"Maybe a little hand over there?" Chris suggested, looking at Alice.

The blonde walked up to the panel and tapped the tall man on the shoulder.

"I got it."

"Forty-five seconds, Abernathy."

Alice closed her eyes, gathering every ounce of strength she still had on her. After a few seconds, the pistons pumped to life and the elevator started to move upwards. She felt hot blood on her upper lip, but she kept concentrated on pulling them up to the surface before detonation.

The platform came to a halt with a jerk, still about four or five feet below the ice, and that seemed as far as it would go. Alice wiped the blood from her nose with her arm and sniffed. She turned around and pointed the metal ladder.

"I'll take point," she said moving past the others. "Jill, you're next."

It was the first time no one argued with her. When Alice felt the ice under her fingers, she pulled herself up and offered a hand to Jill. She gestured for Claire to come up right after her friend. The redhead helped Becky with the first steps and then followed the little girl. The blonde hoisted her daughter and then pulled Claire up too.

"Thirty seven seconds!" Carlos warned as he paced nervously down the elevator's floor. "Go Ada, Luther!"

The Asian agent and the former basketball player hurried after Claire, and Jill guided them to the helicopter, which stood a few yards from the entrance. Carlos turned to Chris.

"Go ahead and help her up. I'll be right behind you."

Chris nodded and placed Rain carefully on the first step.

"Cut it out, Max Steel, I can - _Holy shit_!" she yelled when her weight fell on her injured leg for the first time.

Alice stuck her head on the opening with a smirk. "Don't be such a pussy."

Rain blinked several times. "Abernathy?" she asked, finally recognizing her friend. "What the fuck-?"

"Come on up, woman," the blonde stretched both arms to lift her. "We don't have time for that."

Chris ate up the final steps and promptly offered a hand to Carlos, who came out panting. "Fifteen… seconds."

Chris pulled Rain back on his shoulder while Alice picked up Becky, and then they started to run. The wind and the snow seemed now extremely inappropriate combined with the darkening sky; they had lost so many pieces of clothing down the facility that it was hard to breathe and run at the same time.

"C'mon, we're getting there!" Alice grunted, pulling Claire insistently by the hand. "Keep moving!"

When they stood only a few feet from the Osprey, the ground started to rumble and crack underneath their feet. Alice pulled the cargo door open and helped Becky in, turning to Claire. "Get inside, go!"

She helped Ada, Luther and Jill, then she gave Chris a hand to place Rain on the cushioned bunk. She patted his shoulder as she silently indicated the cuffs to keep Rain under control.

"Just in case," Alice said. She offered Carlos a small nod before shutting the metal door with strength, almost hitting him on the face. She saw Claire's confused eyes through the small window.

"_What the hell are you doing?_" the redhead asked in a muffled voice as she slammed the foggy glass. "_Alice_!"

The blonde turned her back on her. She closed her eyes and once again she let the shield out and around them.

The bombs went off, and bluish beams of light rose from the depths of the ocean to the night sky.

The concrete walls crumbled and were swallowed by the water with violence. The vents exploded into a beautiful ball of fire and disappeared among the cracked blocks of ice. All that remained were the ashes of the Soviet complex and their small frozen island in the middle of the dark ocean.

Alice opened her eyes slowly as she gradually collected the shield. Her fucking nose was bleeding again. She heard the voices inside the Osprey, calling her back, but she had one last job to do.

The dark water began to swirl around them, and Alice knew what that was about. That stupid battle was now too personal to let it go. The gushing ocean started to break into violent waves as something huge sprout up on the chilling surface.

Little by little, the Russian submarine rose above the water, revealing Umbrella's insignia painted over the metal door. Alice gritted her teeth and closed her hands into fists.

The despicable shade of Albert Wesker appeared by the door, surrounded by yellow light. Alice could see him perfectly well despite the darkness, and she followed him with her eyes as he jumped on the top of the submarine.

His evil eyes gleamed red, and Alice heard the muffled yelling inside the Osprey. If Ada had kept that annoying habit of introducing her team to every single beast that lived inside Umbrella Prime, she had probably alerted the group of Wesker's presence.

"Turns out you're better than Umbrella gave you credit for," Wesker said calmly to the blonde. "No one has ever escaped this facility before, and I have to be honest… I'm impressed, Project Alice."

"Shove the compliments up your ass, Wesker," she snarled. If anyone ever thought they had seen Alice angry before, it was nothing compared to her state now. She was past beyond every negative and hateful emotion a person can bear to feel.

"That's rude," he grinned. "I was under the impression that some human… _warmth_…into your life would've softened you, Major."

"Think again," Alice hissed, jumping and landing on the opposite edge of the submarine so now she stood face to face with him. "I never met anyone that took so many wrong conclusions, but you deserve an award."

"At least you learned to speak," Wesker smiled broadly. "You can even make long sentences, I see."

"The last you're about to hear, you son of a bitch-"

Alice fired the rifle, but to her surprise, he dodged every single bullet with inhuman preciseness. She could only catch the blurs of his movements, and before he had time to come to a halt, she threw a psionic blast in his direction.

But he caught her off guard again.

Wesker was no longer smiling and he had a murderous look on his face when he stretched his gloved hand at her. Alice felt an invisible force casting her backwards along with an insufferable pain that pierced her temples. She fell on her back, creasing the metal under and around her body.

The deafening sizzling in her ears was driving her insane. Alice saw the faint light of the Osprey, and she tried to concentrate on Claire's outline by the window. She ignored the fact that the redhead was still slamming it furiously.

_I love you…_

She sat up straight and on the next second Wesker's hands were around her neck. If she had ever doubted Umbrella had created someone stronger than her, there it was, rubbing it to her face. She was pretty sure Wesker was going to kill her with a one single twist on his wrists, but he simply decided to spin her around and slam her against the submarine's tower.

Her spine bent and arched to follow up the violent impact. Alice heard Claire's distant cry loud and clear, just as if the redhead stood right next to her. She tumbled back on the metal surface with a noisy rumble, and Wesker's next move was immediate. He kicked her guts once, and when she tried to stand up, he kicked her in nauseating succession.

Either that bastard had iron in his shoes or she was absolutely fucked up. When Wesker turned his back to her, Alice got on her feet, spiting blood as the ache in her bones subdued. She sprinted on him, clasping both arms around his neck with all her might.

Wesker threw himself backwards against the submarine, slamming Alice between the metal and his weight. He smiled when he felt her rib case crushing underneath the pressure.

"Pain is such a bitch, isn't it?" he commented, staring down at her with contempt. His red eyes moved to the helicopter. "If you can barely manage that, imagine how it will feel for them."

"I'm going… to kill you," she hissed in between gasps as she struggled to get on her feet. "You stay… the hell… away…"

"Oh, how noble," Wesker grinned. "But just as Redfield told you, you suck at that, Abernathy. You suck at being human, and you should have known when it was time to stop trying to be one."

Alice felt excruciating pain as she breathed and her ribs mended back together to their original place inside her chest. The hurt was altering her concentration and taking the best of her senses. Her thoughts were foggy and confused.

Wesker grabbed her around the throat again using only one hand. He walked towards the fin and smacked her down. The propellers ignited and started to spin at abnormal speed. She could feel the water splashing on her hair as Wesker strangled her single handed…

**XXX**

"He's going to kill her!" Claire shouted, not even caring about the tears that ran free on her cheeks.

"Does anyone know how to put this shit up in the air?" Jill asked angrily.

"I can fly it," Rain said in a bored tone as she stared at her restrained wrists. "If you'd stop being stupid and took this shit off me-"

"Nice try," Jill grunted, moving past her and placing another blanket around Becky's shoulder. She picked two more, handing one to Ada and offering the second to Claire, who refused it despite the fact that her lips were purple and she was clattering her teeth. "Freezing your ass won't help Alice," she said sternly, enveloping Claire's shoulder anyway.

The redhead acquiesced with a scowl, but she rubbed it against her arms when Jill wasn't looking.

"We could try to shoot the hinges," Carlos suggested.

"And how do we close it when we take off?" Luther asked. "We're gonna freeze to death without this door."

"We have to fly this thing, pick up Alice and go," Chris shook his head. "Bullets and balls won't work with that motherfucker."

"I'm telling you," Rain grunted as she sat up straight. "Take these shit off and let me help you."

"How can we trust you? You've been trying to kill us since we got in!" Carlos said with a frown.

Claire marched firmly towards her brother. "Give me the keys."

"Claire-"

"GIVE ME THE FUCKING KEYS, CHRISTOPHER!"

Chris took in a sharp gulp of air. He had never seen his sister this resolute in her entire life. He stuck his hand inside the pocket of his jacket and fished the small set of keys out of it. Claire snatched it from his hand and moved towards Rain.

"I like you," the brunette said with a smirk as Claire worked the handcuffs off her wrists.

"Save your breath," Claire hissed to her. "Now go and get us up before I regret doing this."

Rain chuckled and staggered towards the pilot cabin. She had to put a bit of a fight when she got stuck between the front seats, but she worked her way behind the dashboard at last. She was inside an Osprey full of people that seemed to hate her, and the only person she actually knew was outside, with her life at stake. It was their lucky day Rain loved to work under pressure.

She placed her feet on the rudder pedals, turned on the rotor blades and grabbed the collective and the cycling sticks. With a minimal jerk, they hovered above the ice block.

"Yeah, baby!" she laughed. "You still got it!"

Claire jumped unceremoniously to the front seat, clicking the safety of her rifle. "Less talking, Ocampo."

"Jesus, woman… I'm on it…"

They gained height, but the gushing wind was certainly not at their favor that night.

"Have your people fastening their seatbelts," Rain muttered. "This is gonna be kinda bumpy."

Claire squinted at her, wondering if the brunette was trying to trick her into something, but the first yank that threw her painfully against the window was enough to have her following Rain's advice.

"Seatbelts, everyone!" Claire yelled over the loud roar of the engines. Her eyes ran over the cargo area, until she found Jill taking care of Becky. The redhead turned back on her seat. "You should wear yours too."

"I'll need a hand," Rain arched one eyebrow. Claire checked that both of her hands were busy with the controllers.

"Any funny business and I'll shoot you," she hissed as she leaned over the brunette and fumbled for the safety item.

"Your hair smells good."

"I'm warning you-"

"Fine!" she shook her head. "Thought a bit of comedy would take that grumpy look off your face."

"Just shut up and do your thing," Claire breathed out as she slumped back on her seat.

"Fasten yours too, Red," Rain said with her eyes on the dark sky as she pivoted the chopper. "I got the feeling Alice's gonna kill me if you get hurt."

"At least you're not as stupid as you look," the leader said, holding the rifle firmly with both of her hands. "And just for the record, _I_ will kill you if _anyone_ in this helicopter gets hurt."

"Duly noted."

**XXX**

It had been a long time since Alice felt the salty spray of the sea on her face, but the time she did, she was breathing, and she definitively wasn't about to die. She laid flat on her back under the sun somewhere on the west coast, enjoying her last vacations before she joined the Army.

Alice saw Claire under the sun. Her strawberry blonde hair flew with the wind and her eyes seemed lighter than before. The beach slowly became Nevada's desert. Kmart honked behind the steering wheel of the yellow Hummer. She heard Becky calling out for her-

Wesker loosened the grasp around her throat and Alice saw the dark sky as oxygen flooded her lungs and brain. The former chairman got distracted when something huge and noisy hovered above the submarine, and she knew it was her only chance to strike.

Despite the fact that she had been air-deprived for almost a full minute, her brain seemed to be working just fine. Alice closed her eyes and threw Wesker away from her. He slammed and bounced off the floating structure. She took advantage of his visible surprise to attack again by kicking him in the face. Wesker fell on the dark water and disappeared.

Squinting, she realized it was their helicopter flying above her head. However, Alice could not have them this close with Wesker still capable of hurting them. As she beckoned them away, he emerged and pulled her into the water too.

Even with her excellent sense of sight, there was not much Alice could see other than bubbles and blackness. The freezing water pierced her skull and the rest of her body like a thousand knives.

The first blow came from the right. Wesker's speed and strength didn't change underwater, it seemed. The blonde twirled on her spot, trying to find him, but he was nowhere to be seen. The second punch came from underneath and straight to her nose – Alice saw the blood mingling with the water, and she could taste it coming out from her chapped lips.

She looked up and saw the blurred outline of the Osprey on the surface. Alice caught movement on her left, and she felt more than saw that Wesker was about to attack it.

She swam and emerged, catching him in the air midway along his assault. Alice aimed for the submarine again and slammed them both against the metal surface. Wesker was faster than her, and the second she noticed it, he was straddling her, punching every bit of her that he could reach.

"This is a recall, Project Alice," he snarled over the furious whipping wind. "This is your final moment. And don't worry, as soon as I have my turn with Pretty Ass and that annoying teenager, I'll make sure I send them straight to your arms in hell. Not to mention –" he brandished one last punch on her severely injured face "-all the scientific contribution your bastard kid can offer to Umbrella before we discard her too."

"Thank you," Alice blurted out, choking with the blood coming out of her lips and nose.

"Did you just hear me?" he laughed unpleasantly. "What are you thanking me for?"

"For bringing up… the worst… I have in me."

All the anger she felt solidified into a massive, invisible blast that ripped through the air without much of a direct request. The single psionic wave threw the helicopter slightly off course, but it served its purpose to fullest extension. Wesker's arrogant expression dissolved into nothing along with every particle that once composed his body. His form disappeared in the air, and all that was left was the black sky, the sound of waves and the Osprey's low rumble.

Alice lay flat on her back, listening to the quiet noise of her heart. The beams of lights drew nearer as well as the propeller's sounds, and after one very deep sigh, she finally closed her eyes.

Wesker should _never_ have messed with her family.


End file.
